Now that I’m done with my half marathon, and done with the recovery period (that wasn’t very long, it only took 3-4 days to feel normal again), I’m going to try another 5K. I’m doing the Gobble Gallop on Thanksgiving, which I think will be my last race of the year. There’s another 5K the following weekend, but I don’t want to do two 5Ks in two weekends, I don’t see the point. I guess if I have a really crappy race or get sick or something I can sign up for the other one at the last minute.

I haven’t run a speedy race since July, when I ran the Park Point 5 Miler and sucked. I wish there was another 5 mile option, or maybe a 10K, where I could get redemption, but there’s nothing around here and I’m not in a position where I can travel for races. Too much school stuff going on, too many car issues, too much laziness.

I don’t plan on following any specific training plan, since the race is one month from today exactly. I’ll just do one speed workout a week and play the rest by ear. Last week I ran about 23 miles, including a run on the Lakewalk, 6×800 on the treadmill, and two medium-length trail runs (Jay Cooke on Saturday, Hawk Ridge Spur Trail Sunday). My goal is to start building a base of 30 miles per week over the winter, before I start training for my spring goal races, which are to be determined. Tentatively it looks like I’ll be doing longer spring trail races, shorter summer road races, and longer fall trail races, but which races I do depends on where I get a job upon graduation in December.

I am not going to lie: I have unrealistic expectations for improvement in this 5K. I mean, I don’t expect to run 29:59 or anything like that. My personal best is a 34:21, and if I don’t beat that in a big way, I’m going to be disappointed. This is based on no data or anything concrete, so I could be way off on my current abilities. I don’t really care. I haven’t invested a huge training cycle into this race, so if I don’t meet my somewhat unreasonable expectations, it won’t be a massive letdown like the Park Point 5 Miler was. Or so I tell myself.