Sleeping on it

Further thoughts on yesterday's race:

I really do have a cold.

(Evidence: the HEAPS of disgusting used tissues in the bedroom! Hmmm, not feeling so good--not terrible, but not great...)

Between that and the 30-40 seconds I probably lost because of placement at the start, and general tiredness, it easily adds up to 20-25 seconds slower per mile than I would like.

The trick is finding a balance between rationalization and realistic self-assessment!

But I think that on a good day, I could currently do 8:45 miles for a half-marathon on that course--it is not so much that my fitness and speed are worse than I thought than that race paces come in quite a bit more variable (depending on conditions) than one would like. This is especially true when one is not very experienced...

I have ordered an expensive but exciting-looking set of Spinervals DVDs from Amazon, based on Spokane Al's recommendations. (Thanks again, Al!)

The next couple weeks are looking a bit patchy for training purposes--a lot of work obligations, including an overriding need to finish my book revisions! But I've sent an e-mail to try and get more information about the CU masters swim, which is in the early evenings--what I really need is to reclaim the early-morning hours just for the next couple weeks for book work time (I cannot do this on a regular basis, but the fact is it's impossible to finish something big during the school year unless I tip over into getting up at--oh dear--4:30 or something like that...), try out the evening swimming and see what will work for me. I want to keep Thursday morning swimming, because JB's workouts are so great, but I could trade off the other days, both the morning workout and the evening masters involve an all-or-nothing financial commitment but cost only fairly modest amounts of money so it's not prohibitive to mix and match...

What I really want is to make my lovely training plan for the weeks between now and May, but I am not sure quite when I will have time! And as I say, the next couple weeks are sort of catch-as-catch-can in any case...

Bike ride later, if I am not feeling too sick--but really I am OK, just congested...