6 days.....

I am nearing the end of my training for the half marathon, today was my last big session in the pool and I am so relieved.  It has been amazing to prove to myself that I could develop a training program and stick to it for nine weeks, while working, looking after the boys with a husband that is absent most of the week.  It has been hard and I have struggled with motivation more than once, but I pushed through it and now I get to taper ready for race day, I need to taper, my legs need me to taper, I need a rest.

This weekend I will run and bike ride as usual but from Monday I will limit my runs to just two for the week, I will walk or maybe ride with the kids to school on the other days but that is it.  No cross training, no wind trainer, no sprints in the pool or long lonely 3km laps with my shoulders burning.  I am quite sure I won't know what to do with myself.

But now it is time to talk goals.  I have broken them up into three categories.

1. Finish the race. Obviously that is the primary goal, if things don't go well, if I don't keep hydrated or end up with a horrible stitch then I at least want to say that I ran the whole way, and learn from my mistakes to make the next one better.
2. Complete it in under 2.5 hours.  This goal seems manageable, from my training runs I have picked what seems to be my most comfortable pace and if I can keep it steady for the whole race I should smash this time, but I would like to have a conservative goal in mind.
3. Complete the race in 2hrs 15min. If I can achieve this then I will be sky high happy, over the moon.

I am still trying to decide on what I will say to myself when the going gets tough, a mantra I suppose that I can repeat over and over to keep me going when all I want to do is stop, sit down and have a long drink, but I haven't got there yet, I assume something more than internally swearing at the part of me that thought this was a good idea is probably needed!   

6 more days, the countdown is on........