A stomach/intestinal illness kept me away from my scheduled tempo run today as I wound up missing work and lying on the couch trying to quell the nausea. I don't like skipping two days of running, but sometimes you just have to adjust. Thursday was to have been a cross training day on the bike, but if I'm feeling up to it, I'll put in 45 minutes of "comfortably hard" running and get back on track.
I'm anxious to give the 12-miler another crack. As the half marathon date approaches, the window of opportunity decreases. This coming weekend is my last one before tapering off and gearing up for the real thing. I'm eager to prove I can tackle the distance and the hills, with corrections to my sleep, hydration and pace control. With a likely Saturday evening dinner commitment that could keep me out late, Sunday morning is no good so it'll have to be Saturday. I hope to treat it more like a dress rehearsal than I did last weekend.
1. I plan to get to bed early, early Friday night and make sure I'm well fueled and hydrated the day before, with maybe just a light workout or run.
2. I'm going to stash water at 3, 6 and 9 mile points. Last time, I put one stash at the 8 mile marker but needed it much sooner.
3. I have GOT to teach myself to slow down. I'm no speed demon in the first place, but I can't seem to feel what my half marathon pace should be. I find that when I'm fresh, I naturally fall into a 8:00 pace which is more 10K speed for me. The amount of hills on the course I've mapped out just won't allow me to get anaerobic before the halfway point, so I have to learn.
I'm a little nervous about the prospect of "failing" again and what that'll do to my psyche, but I'm also confident that I have identified what caused me to stumble last time and that if those are negated my conditioning is sufficient to pull me through. It'll be a big confidence boost with 2 weeks to go before the real thing.
So that's where my head is today. I just hope my stomach can get on board by tomorrow and let me resume my training plan.
