You know you're a runner . . . (Part2)

When you decide to celebrate your birthday by signing up for a relatively expensive half marathon that's held right on your birthday. 

Tons of my non running friends thought I was crazy. Now I'm starting to think maybe I was out of my mind. It was super great to sign up for it in November thinking I was going to beast training and set a super speedy PR. 

Nothing like a shiny medal to say happy birthday. Even better that it spins! 

But then Thanksgiving and finals rolled around where I did zero running. Now I'm having serious misgivings about the race. Maybe I'll end up being slower than my very first half and end up ruining the whole day with a bad race experience. 

But I'm hoping that I can at least PR even by a little bit. All I have to do is keep a faster than 9:40 pace. Easy, right? One thing that's totally great about this race is that it should be mostly flat at sea level elevation. My other races were in upstate NY and had tons of rolling hills. 

One thing that I am worried about is the heat. I know that it's crazy complaining about it being too hot in the middle of January. But I've noticed that it's actually quite hot around the time that I'd probably be starting. Hopefully, if I rein myself in from starting off too fast in the beginning, a PR is attainable despite the heat. 

Dante is totally telling me, "Please woman, you can totally PR. Stop freaking out." Or he's asking for personal space. I like to think it's the former. 

Those are my goals for the half. Hopefully, when I feel like giving up, I'll remember how I told everyone who reads my blog that I can PR. 

Now comes the main reason for this post. I wanted to get everyone's opinion about tapering. The race is this Sunday. And my last long was the weekend before last. I actually didn't run last weekend, because I didn't feel like it. Also, I could sort of feel a beginning of shin splints coming on and didn't want to chance an injury so close to the race. 

This is what i did instead of running. I tortured my dog and forced it to hang out with me. 

But now I have no idea what to do about the rest of the week. Today, I covered 4.6 miles at a relaxed pace. But now I feel like maybe I should have ran faster or longer. 

Should I squeeze in a speed workout? Should I cover 4 miles? 5 miles? Maybe 6, 7 or even 8? And what should I do on Friday and Sat? Should my last run be on Friday? Or should I rest Friday and go for a really relaxed run on Sat? Any advice would be helpful. Thanks and I hope everyone had a great start to their week!