Next Race is 22 days away! The Northshore Classic Half Marathon

So this morning I registered for the Northshore Classic a half marathon run in Highland Park. Oddly this will be the first of my three long races that I have run in Illinois all the others have been in Wisconsin (Trail-breaker Half, Madison Half and the the Wisconsin Marathon). My PR for the half is 2:50:56 at the Madison Half last November. My time for the half in the Wisconsin Marathon was approximately 2:40 and change. I have run numerous half's during my long runs leading up to the marathon and have always been lower then 2:50 (times of 2:37, 2:42, and 2:47).

So I need to figure out a goal for this race which I think should be in the 2:38 to 2:30 range, but I need to make sure the pace is realistic for the lower time goal of 2:30. I also need to watch myself because the marathon will only be 28 days in the rear view mirror and I want to make sure I am fully recovered. I feel good today (7 days later) but all the literature I have read says it takes about a day for every mile you ran. So some of my quickie training for the this half will fall into the recovery zone.

My tentative plan (starting week of May 11) for the Northshore Half is as follows:

Week 3-- Runs of 3, 5, 7 for 15 miles total
Week 2-- Runs of  3, 5, 3, 9 for 20 total miles
Week 1--  Runs of 3, 5 and then 13.1 on race day for 21 miles.