Ruminations on Training for a 1/2 Mary

Yesterday was the last day of classes at the college where I teach. Next week is finals and then...

I AM DONE!!!
Compose
Thank goodness because my running and training and blogging has been suffering lately. The running part is the most troubling, since I am running a 1/2 marathon in just two weeks. I feel more ready for this race than I was for the debacle in Huntington Beach, after which I swore that I would never, ever, again run a 1/2 mary that I hadn't prepared for.

So, the question is...am I prepared for this?

Touch question to answer. There are those factors that suggest that I am prepared:

1. I have been running regularly (if three times a week counts as regular).
2. I have been running faster and stronger in both short and long runs.
3. I have been consistent with speed work (see #2).
4. I am not hurt.

Factor that suggests I am NOT prepared:

1. The longest run I have done recently thus far was 9 miles, and that was back on April 24. 
2. While I have been running regularly, there are some weeks (like this one) when I've only run twice.
3. I have done almost NO strength training in over a month and no strength training means that I am more at risk for hurting myself.

To me, this lack of a 10+ mile run before a 1/2 is the biggest factor. No 10+ mile run causes me to have doubts about both my physical as well as mental readiness. 

After I ran in the Surf City 1/2 Marathon in February, I made the comment that I was very well trained for the first 7 miles; I endured the next three, and gutted out miles 10-13 on sheer will alone.  Looking back at my training,* I can see clearly that I WAS SOOOOOOO unprepared. I was coming off that foot fracture. I hadn't run much at all. The longest run I'd done was about 6 miles (which explained my being prepared to run 7).

Heading into the Rock-n-Roll 1/2 Marathon on June 6, I've done MUCH more training than I did before SC, BUT the fact that I haven't run over 10 miles since April 3 worries me. There's something about getting over that 10 mile mark that gives me the mental confidence to know that I have the physical strength to run only 3 more miles.

So, tomorrow morning, I'll be putting in an 11 mile run. The rest of the Track Club will be tapering, but most of them are running the marathon and did a 22 mile run last weekend. For me, this will be the longest run of the season. Finishing 11 miles in around 2 hours is my goal.

After that, I'll start doing some light strength training (daily...back to those P90X CDs that are currently gathering dust). I just don't want to hurt myself again...

Is Alice ready?** (dontcha just love when bloggers write about themselves in the third person? pffft)?

We'll see.***
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* Gotta love Daily Mile and Garmin Connect for housing all my running info as I'd have absolutely no recollection of what and when and how far I'd been running. Actually just looking through that and comparing my pre-SC 1/2 training with my current training makes me feel much better.

** I'm pretty sure I'm supposed to make a comment like "that's what he said" right about here. Mostly because if I don't then GlavEn will berate me for missing that opportunity since in my last post, I missed the double-ententre opportunity when I rhetorically asked, "How small was it Alice" about the number of runners in the RiverFest 5K.

*** That's what she said.