I got a little behind with my training plan last week. My Tuesday tempo was awful. I was working, standing all day, barely had time to drink, so I think I was dehydrated by the evening run, and it was hot outside. Also, I picked a somewhat hilly course. I tried to run 1 mile warmup, 4 miles at 7:00, and 1 mile cooldown. My first fast mile was 7:05. Slightly disappointed, I tried to run faster, and the result was a 7:18 second mile. Then I completely ran out of steam during the third mile and I had to stop and jog (almost limp) home.

I wanted to repeat the tempo on Thursday (after resting on Wednesday). This time I drank enough during the day and it was somewhat cooler, but I still worked a lot that day. My fast miles were 6:53, 7:01, 7:18, 7:11. Not good. I also felt totally hammered at the end.

Then I came down with a cold on Friday. I was so sick that I didn't run on Friday and Saturday. I was better on Sunday, but I had a lot of work to do (deadline on Monday), so I didn't run. What a bum week.

I think I'll repeat the last two weeks of training. I will have to pick a new goal race then. Maybe I tried to do too much, or the cold virus was in me since Tuesday. Or something - it is no good to find excuses.

I just feel that I'm so slow, and I'll never run sub-20.