Week in Review

77 miles
3 doubles
2 days in MI
1 day in WI
2 days in IL

I generally try to be positive in my blog posts. Nobody wants to read about someone else feeling sorry for herself because she missed a few workout splits or had a less than stellar race when that person is clearly dealing with the epitome of first-world problems. And don't get me wrong; there are plenty of times throughout the course of a given week when I feel pretty darn good about myself. But to be completely honest, Dad (and the other nine people who are reading this), I'm fairly discouraged right now with how my training is going and my prospects for CIM. It's totally unfair, but I can't help comparing each workout and race to how I felt and executed similar workouts and races during my Philly buildup last year. I was running so strong and tough, doing the bulk of my workouts solo (due to an injured queenmaker), and yet I was feeling good and crushing all of them. This time around I don't seem to be making much progress, and even when I do run somewhat fast it's a constant struggle. I know that every training cycle is different, and I realize I have three extra weeks this time around--trust me, I'll need every single one of them--but I'm just being realistic: maybe it's time to reevaluate my goals and expectations for the race. 2:37 is looking like a monumental challenge right now, especially when I'm struggling to run faster than marathon pace during shorter races and workouts. We're still too far out to make any definitive goal changes, but a come to Jesus talk with my coach might be imminent in a few weeks' time if I can't turn things around.