With only a few days to go until my race, it's time to take a look back at my current training cycle.

Going in, I had planned to run this race just for fun, but I still set an ambitious training plan for myself.

After about two weeks of running on that plan, I pretty much had to scrap the whole thing because of my knee and IT band problems.

The original plan was four runs per week, two days of strength training and a day of yoga.

Actual training was two to three days of running per week, two days of strength training and yoga about every other week. It wasn't a terrible training cycle, but it wasn't my best.

My knee has still been acting up off and on. Last week's 10 miler was awesome, but this week's six miler was absolutely terrible.

I had hoped to have my long runs peak at 15 miles but because of my knee and IT band, my longest run was 10.

I'm confident I'll be able to finish the race, as long as my knee plays nice. I just know it won't be my best time. It may even be a personal worst because I'm on vacation in New Orleans and plan to take advantage of all the city has to offer.

I'm totally OK with that. This race is for fun. This training cycle was far from perfect. I just want to get my sweet medal hanging on Mardi Gras beads.