After not a ton of running this week and mostly cycling, I decided I wanted to do a practice 5K tonight to make sure I'm ready for my upcoming race. I didn't have a course completely mapped out before hand so I ended up running 3.2 instead of 3.1 and clocked a time of 31:04.

That's slower than my stubble time, which makes me think maybe my stubble time course was shorter than a true 3.1 because seriously I was booking it tonight. I finished my first mile in a little over 9 minutes and then the second around 18:30ish.

That's like lightening for me.

I know I did definitely slow down in the 3rd mile because I could feel my calves tightening and going up one of the hills on my course I had to start walking so obviously I lost some time there.

Oh well, it's not a big deal. I'm usually not that worried about my times, I just thought it was a little strange because I was working hard tonight and I don't remember pushing that hard in my stubble time race.

Anyway, the whole point of tonight's run was to make sure I am ready for Sunday's race. I think it proved I am.

I taped my knee as a precaution because I plan to do that in the race and everything felt good there. I wore an outfit very similar to the one I will be wearing on race day to make sure all the kinks are worked out with that and everything was comfortable. I think you're allowed to run this race with an iPod and I plan to.

I plan to pack a loaf of bread and peanut butter so I can have toast with PB as my morning energy because I guarantee the place I'm staying this weekend won't have whole wheat bread. Hell they might not even have a toaster, I could just be eating bread with PB.

I'm starting to feel the nerves about this race already and I think it's because I haven't raced in such a long time and it's my first race coming back from my knee issues this summer. Also, I know a lot of friends are going to be either running with me or there to watch, which isn't something I'm really used to. Plus I'll be staying not at my house, driving to the race without my mom (who usually runs things with me) and having no one to sympathize with my night before the race nervous rituals of laying out all my stuff and making sure everything is ready, etc. etc.

I must keep telling myself that I just need to have fun and not worry about my times...but it's so hard not to focus on them!