We are getting down to the nitty-gritty here and this is getting tough.  I so didn’t want to go running today, but when I look at what a piddledy short run it is, and the fact that there’s no real speed requirement, I really can’t argue.  I put my brain into auto-pilot and left the house with no particular plan.  A couple miles into the run, I became aware that I had done a pretty good job of assembling all my running gear without really giving it much conscious thought.  I really wasn’t missing anything I needed, so that was cool.  I just listened to my music and was able to plot out, in my head, a simple route that would end up being just about 5.7 miles, right on the head.

I did very well for about the first 2.3 miles, but then I struggled to get to the 2.8 mile turn-around point.  Once I turned around and was on the trip home, another mile or two just fell off without much in the way of effort.  I had to work for about the final mile.  My knees were complaining a bit and my heart rate felt a bit high, but not really intolerable, so I just kept plodding along.

I was a little surprised and disappointed to discover that my average speed had only been 5.4 mph.  Although I was only ‘required’ to go 5.25, and I certainly beat that, I had grown somewhat accustomed to having an average speed of about 5.6 when I wasn’t really paying attention, so it was just another little reminder that I might be losing speed.

I think I should take 1-3 rest days to give my knees a break, but I don’t know if that’s just the ‘lazy me’ talking or if that’s a sensible runner who has a good idea about how to let her body rest for a little while, to enhance her race-day performance.  I guess I will play it by ear and see how I feel on each of the next couple of days.  My most important goal is to finish uninjured, so I will need to let go of my time goal completely if it puts my uninjured goal at risk.  We’ll see.