Always on the brink

As I type this, it is Friday, June 15, and I am on a Greyhound bus from New York City to Atlantic City for three nights of Phish. I am ridiculously excited, but that is not what I want to address right now. Instead, I want to talk about speed work and training for this 5K race.  If you know me, you know that I tend to push just a little too hard. If I run a good race, I will only want to run a better one. While I think I have a couple more marathon PRs in me, this desire to keep topping myself, I think, has reached it's limit in the short game. Since the disastrous Gansett Marathon in April, I have been trying to get back into 5K shape. I tortuously dieted down to a lean 145, but every time I ratcheted up my training, I got injured. And even now, with my twice-postponed 5K still two weeks away, I feel on the brink of pulling some muscle, tendon or ligament.  I do not want to face the notion that the Hal Higdon Advanced program is too much for me to handle, but with six days of running per week and half of them involving speed, I wonder if I am in over my head. There are only two easy run days for recovery. By the time my Thursday rest day comes around, I can not even enjoy it because I am so fatigued. I can not even get the usual joy out of long run day because I feel so damaged. On the other hand, the effort is clearly showing results. This week's track workouts included six 400-meter intervals that I blasted out at an average of 1:20 each and three one-mile intervals that averaged 6:05 a piece with some gas still left on the tank. But what good will it do if I can not make it to race day...again? In the last 10 minutes of today's 41-minute tempo run, during which I tried to do 10K pace or better for nine minutes in the middle, something in the back of my left leg did not feel right. It was tight, pulling, straining. Like I said, always on the brink. Even now, as I sit on the bus, it hurts. And I have a long run to do in the morning (not to mention a lot of dancing to do tonight!). It is going to be a rough two weeks.