Goals for Sunday

The virus score: Dan 1, Vista Windows Internet Security 2011 0. Tonight I should be able to work on my playlist for Sunday's race.

Unfortunately, the other virus--the nasty cold that I've been battling--is so far winning its game against my immune system. I skipped what was supposed to be an easy three miler yesterday morning and spent all day at home with my kids, who also have this cold but despite some coughing are handling it better than I am. They napped, and I tried to, but I was so congested I couldn't sleep. At 4:30, I dragged myself into work for my Thursday night shift. And helped by Nyquil, I slept OK last night.

I'm telling myself I'm feeling better today, enough that I might attempt that three easy mile run tonight. Regardless, I'm still hoping to be mostly on game by Sunday. Maybe another good night's sleep will do it for me. Dan told me his dad heard that colds can make you feel crappy in a race but don't necessarily slow you down. I'm banking on that.

At least Sunday's weather forecast is still looking good. The high is predicted at around 55 degrees, with a 20% chance of some precipitation. Chilly is good, especially on that course. There's no mention of the dreadful wind, either, though that doesn't mean there won't be any. We had a doozy of a wind day on Tuesday afternoon and overnight--it sounded like I imagine Dorothy's dreams of the tornado carrying her house away did--and another spurt of gusts yesterday afternoon. Fingers crossed that's it for the wind until next week.

Now it's time for me to set the three-part goal for this Boulder Spring Half Marathon: my moonshot goal, my should-be-attainable-step-forward goal and my this-wasn't-my-time-cut-my-losses goal.

Without further ado, here are those goals (I'll start with the pessimistic one):

1. Cut My Losses: I would equal or beat the chip time for my last outing on this course: the sub-2:05 I ran in October. After this training, I should be able to do that even with a cold and/or wind.

2. Should Be Attainable, Would Be Progress: between 1:54 and 1:55; this is the pace predicted for the half-marathon by my 5K pace in last December's Colder Boulder and therefore the race pace all of my training has been based on this winter.

3. Moonshot: Sub-1:50, the pace that says I'm ready train for a BQ in my next marathon; probably unrealistic now, even if my cold goes into complete retreat, and would have been tough even had I been perfectly healthy; but I don't think it's completely impossible. A girl has to dream (that's what this whole blog is about).

So there you go! Keep your fingers crossed for me. Oh, and don't forget to enter my Justin's Nut Butter giveaway, if you haven't already. Deadline is tomorrow (March 26) at noon. I'll unveil the winner when I unveil my playlist.