Summary Leading To Half-Marathon Champs

I've neglected blogging my miles since I got the new Nike+ running watch that has this nifty website for tracking all your data. It seems like double work by blogging miles when all my data is on another website. The one thing that a blog allows is a bit more detail of events and more space to describe how I am feeling and what's going on. (For those very few that give a rip!)

Since my last posting, I managed to run some minuscule miles and not really get in the work I had anticipated getting in prior to the Half-Marathon Championships I ran  yesterday. For some reason just as the pollen was gaining force I developed what I term a chest "virus" that also settled in my sinuses a bit. It was very unfortunate in timing and I definitely felt a lack of overall motivation and ability to train during those two weeks. I had extreme fatigue and had difficulty breathing for a lot of my runs. I managed to get in small amounts of faster work, but nothing like I would like to do prior to a peak race. I hate to be making excuses for what I call an under performance yesterday but I do feel like I could have made two minutes faster had I had better training leading up to the race. In the end would it have made a difference in my overall placing? Not much. But, it would have made a difference in how I felt which is my number one concern. As I stated in the past, as I age I don't mind slowing down. It's inevitable. But, as I slow down, I still want to feel like I am "racing" and not just plodding down the road. Yesterday I felt somewhere in between. At times it felt really good to be racing down the course and there were times where I wished I had just a few more miles under my legs. In any event, I finished happy and still hungry to train. I now have some decisions to make for the rest of the summer and fall. I committed to a race in early October and as long as I can put in some decent miles things should go well.

Here is the quick summary of my weeks leading up to race day.

May 6-12 *last good week of training before getting sick
Total: 65 miles w/ 2 workouts, long run of 19

May13-18
Total: 48 miles

May 20-26
Total: 40 + miles, *missed a day without Nike watch somewhere

May27-June2 *sickness begins
Total: 5K race 16:23
          40 +  miles

June 3-9 *still sick/ ? allergies
Total: 50 miles + workouts

June 10-16th
Total: 47 miles *minor workouts

June 17-23rd
Total: 37 miles
          *1:14:09 1/2 marathon

Years Total: 1228 miles

***ON TO NEXT PHASE OF TRAINING AFTER A WEEK EASY/OFF***