My Coach Says We're In A Tight Spot

Let's be clear about two things.

First of all, no matter how much I wish for it, I am neither fast enough or rich enough to have a running coach. The closest I get to any kind of coaching is the weekly chart that I printed off of Runners World that hangs on my refrigerator. That "coach" gives me my daily workout for 10 weeks as I train for the Charleston Half Marathon.

Okay, the second thing. Every time I look at that training schedule I hear the voice of George Clooney's character in O Brother Where Art Thou say, "Damn, we're in a tight spot!"

Because of the cold/flu virus that circulated our house I have now officially NOT run for two weeks. I am freaking out a little. One week was bad enough but two is kind of unthinkable right now. I only have 4 weeks left before the race and to have lost two weeks worth of training and fitness at this point makes me really pissed. And a little scared that I won't be able to race the way that I want to. I wanted to go into this race with really solid training underneath me so that there would be no excuses for how I preformed on race morning. I don't want to run slower than desired and be able to say, "Well, if I hadn't had that flu bug...."

But life very seldom gives us exactly what we want, huh? Soooo...... I am going to try to erase the last two weeks from my head and focus on getting some real quality running in over the next four weeks. Up this week: a 7 mile speed workout and an 8 mile long run (on Christmas Day!) I am hoping I can salvage what is left of my training and still feel confident about my ability to run well.