Fine lines & race goals

Tomorrow morning I will get up and run my first race since August of 2011. Well, technically I ran a race in December while I was pregnant but I didn't race it so I'm not really counting it.

I'm trying to find the line between being confident and believing in myself ... and setting myself up for failure. I'm past the point of wondering if I'm going to finish. I'm past the point of being happy just crossing the finish line. BUT, I just had a baby 8 months ago, I'm still breastfeeding, and this is a TRAIL run which means not a lot of room to get around people and lots of sticks to trip over. And I just read my report from the last time I ran this and was reminded by the sand we had to run in. I forgot about that. So. What to do? What to hope? What to shoot for? What to be satisfied with?

I've been training with a plan The Happy Runner made me eons ago to get to 28 minutes. But instead of doing the traditional intervals that were in the plan (from 2 years ago), I've been doing her Fast 40 workout instead. The plan had called for fast quarters and then the following week fast halves and then the last week doing mile repeats. I wasn't having any of that but I didn't want to stick with just the same Fast 40. I started out doing the first and last 4 repeats of 30 seconds at 7.5 and the minute intervals at 8. So first I bumped up the 30 second intervals to 7.7, then the next week I added a couple more minute intervals. I think the last week I did a 6/6/6. I can't really remember. I'm not sure why I'm including this except that I might want to remember that's what I did. Sometimes this blog is my only way of remembering things.

Anyway. I've been aiming for 28 minutes for this race with the idea that I'll shoot for 26 at the Freihofer's in June. But I think I can do better than 28.

So, I say "so" a lot, this is what I've decided.

C. Beat 29:25 my last time for this race.
B. 28 minute range
A. Beat my overall PR of 27:35

Honestly, I will be happy with 28. But I'll be pretty damn happy with 27. If I do manage 27... I can't wait until the Freihofer's.

Maybe I'll add the risers & be able to reach
the dish soap. I mean, stretch more.

And now I leave you with the best multitasking idea I have ever come up with. I often do heel raises when I'm brushing my teeth, but I don't often get a chance to stand on my stairs and do heel drops. I pulled out my old step from my stepping days (we all had stepping days right?) and put it in front of the kitchen sink. Now when I'm washing dishes (even with a dishwasher I still have dishes to wash) I can do heel drops and really stretch my calf muscles.

Hopefully I'll be pretty damn happy tomorrow. But really and truly? I'm pretty damn happy already. I'm happy to be racing again. I'm happy to be running. I'm happy to not be vomiting. I'm happy with my little quartet of ragamuffin children. I'm not happy that I smell poopy again.