In the Absence of Something Substantial: Attack of the Panic Moment

So I decided to visit the website for the half marathon i'm running in October, and i noticed that it's scheduled for Oct. 2. Oh. the 2nd, you say? I thought it was the 9th. Oh dear, I've been planning for an extra week of training! Looks like the 2 1/2 weeks I thought i had are only 1 1/2. Oops. As Brad might say, it was a slap-forehead moment.

I'll be honest, i'm a little bit concerned that I haven't trained enough. I definitely haven't trained as diligently as I did last time. on the flip side, I started this out with a much higher fitness base than i did last time. I ran about 200 miles for my training last time, I'll probably be at about 130 or so for this one. Although, I'm running my average runs at about 30 seconds to a minute faster per mile now, too. More comfortably. I'm going to do a 10 mile run this weekend, that should be a good gauge of where i expect to be on Oct. 2.

The course is super-flat (the most elevation change is 10 feet per mile), and all of the (very little) climbing that you do is done by mile 7. The last bit is downhill(ish). Super bonus, there's going to be live music the whole time. you all know how much I love me some live music, especially some Big Head Tom.

i ran my last half at about 2 hours, just over 20 minutes. I'm anticipating shaving at least a minute per mile off of that time. I'm shooting for 2 hours. I believe a large part of the problem that slowed me down on the last 4-5 miles was the really rough terrain which caused a great deal of pain to my feet. I've taken steps to remedy this problem: I got a new pair of 5 Finger Shoes which have slightly thicker soles (you'd be surprised at the difference 1 mm makes), and I'm going to try the socks that go with them (i've heard great things about them). yeah, I'm that guy. I'm also expecting a cooler temperature (it was an unseasonably warm day last time), and I know a little bit more of what to expect! This ain't my first rodeo, cowboy.

Anyways, I have six more days of hard training, and then several rest days, and then we'll see how I do!

Activities for today:

Ambushed by an appointment for haircut, i couldn't run today. Will have to wake up early tomorrow to run before work (substituting my friday day off for thursday this week)
Wrote a few extra words on chapter 2, which i may or may not keep.
Wrote chapter 3. It's only one word. "Humpf!"
Wrote a very few words on chapter 4, and outlined the general events.
there may or may not have been moments of panic about the loss of 1 week for my training

Music for the Day: