2 pounds and 4 weeks

.........and a whole lot of speed to build up. Made the decision last week to switch from the half marathon to the 5k at Tom King this year. I've run the half 3 times at Tom King. Twice in 1:27 during marathon training. I've only trained once, for the half distance only and that was a 1:28, but that was in Memphis. Just can't see attempting another half when I'm not in shape to run it to my potential. Last year, while in marathon training, I thought a 1:26 was possible and just about got it. Perhaps with a little more taper and not after running a 20 miler the week before. But, after training this spring, it seems the marathon training is what got me in good enough shape to run those times. Or the buildup from my last injury is just taking longer.

Maybe I'm just a little impatient this cycle. I jumped into half marathon training about 3-4 weeks after BQ1. I seemed to chase after him more times than not. The fast finish long runs were probably the most revealing. I just couldn't keep the pace going. Plus, the last couple of steady state runs were way more work than last year. It's coming back but slower. Fourteen miles chasing the fast guys on the hills on the St. John hills were tougher and I couldn't maintain pace attempting a fast finish, even with the downhill to assist me. Part of this was because of the form drills from the previous day. The drills were a bit more work than I anticipated. Good stuff, hope to see some results from those in the coming weeks.

The forms drills came from Pete Magill's, Younger legs for Older Runners. This is a great web site. I was really interested in his 10 week program for the 5k for the upcoming Carlsbad 5000. But, he's pulled it from his website after 2 weeks and is going to write it up for Running Times. Scratch that, its still on his site.

So, with four weeks until the race I'm going to concentrate on speed and form. I've only got two more pounds to drop to get to 155, which is the lightest I've ever raced. Dropping the weight is a non issue. The speed on the other hand is going to be tough. Thursday I tried some repeats at race pace and it was tough to find it and to consistently hold it. Probably need to go back to the track. That's what I did in 2008 for my only sub 19:00 5k in the last 10 years. Somewhere, somehow I've got to build some strength and endurance. I'd have thought the 60 miles weeks would do that.

This mornings run should be interesting. We got a couple of inches of snow overnight. I really enjoy running in the snow, but this will be the 3rd day straight with snow. It's ok for the easy days, but really makes getting the quality runs difficult to execute. Ready for winter to be over.