My first half of the year is quickly approaching.  Pittsburgh is in less than 2 weeks, and as I have said before I am nowhere near where I would like to be.  I really wanted to break the 1:40 mark for this race.  I know that is not going to happen in Pittsburgh, though at this point I still hope I can pull it off for deckers creek or Anchorage,  there is still enough time to train for those races.  

The frustrating part of the for me was the fact that I did not seem to be able to find my stride.  A month ago my runs felt better and more natural.  I would say to the point that I was more prepared a month ago to run this half than I am today.  Lately all of my runs have felt slow, and almost like I have been running through mud.  My legs also seem to want to quit after about 5 miles.  I will say that for last Monday’s long run, 12 miles, part of the issue was the temp.  I was not prepared for the 80 degree temp that I ran in.  I was out of water by mile 6.  I really wanted to finish so I pushed through and did get the entire thing in, though I did have to walk a little…especially in then last mile.  Overall my training in the last month has been poor to say the least.  

Last night I had planed to run 6 miles this morning.  However I was slow moving so by the time I hit the road at 5:30, I knew that I would only be able to get in 4-5.  I’m not sure where it happened but so ewhere around mile 2 I realized that I was actually feeling good on this run.  Not sure what helped, the stretching,  resting a little more than I would have liked, or something else, but something seemed to pull me out of the slump that I have been in.  While I’m still slower than I would like, I at least have my stride back…and wig that I know the speed will come back, even if it’s not for Pittsburgh.  What do you do to bring you out of a training slump?