race re-cap!

The weather stayed true to the forecast, and while we had some hellacious rain Saturday afternoon, it stayed dry all morning. It was pretty good running weather - about 60 degrees & overcast. It was quite humid though, but I'll take that over rain any day.

The course was a little (ok, a LOT) hillier than I was expecting. I train on hills every time I run simply because they're on my course, but I feel like I could've been better prepared. In spite of the hills slowing me down, I met my goal and finished in under 2 hours. My official time was 1:56:34. That's about 10 minutes faster than my first half marathon back in November. I'm definitely happy with my time, but I can't help but think that I would've been faster if I could lose some weight. I feel like that is really slowing me down.

So on that note, I started the 30-day shred again yesterday. I've never done it for 30 days straight before and I'm interested in seeing the results. I'm "shredding," as the kids are calling it these days, at 6:30am. That way I can still run in the afternoons. That's right, I'm shredding and running. And probably doing ballet one day a week along with horseback riding at least once a week. I'm going to be a busy girl. Especially when July rolls around because that's when I'm starting my fall marathon training.

Yep, I said marathon, as in 26.2 miles. I'll be following Hal Higdon's Novice 2 plan. The first week starts off with a long run of 8 miles. So from now until then I'm going to keep my weekly long runs at 8 miles and over. I'll be doing 3-4 weekday runs per week, ranging from 3-5 miles each. I'll probably throw some 5K & 10K races in there as my schedule permits. It feels really good to have a plan.

so i'm thinking........

...........of doing this. Anyone want to join me?

regularly scheduled posting

The running has been going pretty well lately. I went on a cruise the second week of February and I really thought that it would mess up my training plan. I went prepared to run, though, as there was a jogging track onboard the ship. Notice I just said JOGGING track. Not walk around slowly in your bare feet sipping your coffee track. Running on a cruise ship sounded like such an exciting and novel thing to do. It is, sadly, highly overrated. I had to make 9 laps around the track just to run a mile. As if that wasn't unbearable enough, there were so many people in.my.way! Very frustrating. I really shouldn't complain though since I did get to run overlooking the Caribbean while my running group back home was overlooking the local lake.

I was really proud of myself for sticking with my running while on the cruise. I think that is honestly the first time that I have ever continued exercising while on vacation. I even had to get up early to do it, which is impressive in itself. While cruising, I ran my 6.5 mile long run on Sunday, 4.5 miles on Tuesday, 2 miles on Wednesday, and 4 miles on Thursday. We returned home on that Saturday, so I feasibly could've done my long run on Sunday, but we were busy unpacking and retrieving our dogs from their vacation spots. I ran 7 miles the following Monday, then 4.5 miles Wednesday, 5 miles on Friday, and then 8 miles this past Sunday.

Whew! Did you follow that? I think I'm caught up to this week now. Monday I did ballet, yesterday I ran 4.5 miles, and tonight I have a 3 mile run planned. I'm playing with the idea of adding another run in on Fridays mostly because I feel fat. I know that is not a good reason, but I'd rather do that than any other sort of cardio. Last year I was afraid to push myself into running too many days per week and honestly I didn't really want to. Now I don't dread the thought of it and my runs have felt good lately so I'm going to try it. I'll listen to my body and back off if I need to.

13.1 to 32

That's right, I'll be 32 this year. How did that happen? How did I reach my thirties without accomplishing a list of things that I thought I would have? Alas, I have no answers to these questions. Well actually, I guess that is the answer - that I have no answer. Because if I had the answer, I wouldn't be here, wondering what the answer is. Follow me? Do you ever look at a word and think that it looks odd somehow? That is how the word answer looks to me right now. Maybe because I've typed it too many times or maybe because of something more. Maybe it's a parallel to my life and what I am thinking right now.............








LOLOLOL................did you seriously think I was going there with it? Whatevs.

Anyway, the title of this post is in reference to the half-marathon that I am planning on running on March 28th. A mere 2 days before my 32nd birthday. Maybe I shouldn't be splashing my age all across the internets for everyone to see, but I really don't care. I'm pretty sure that you can find out anything you want to know about anyone if you try hard enough.

So, back to running. I'm using Hal Higdon's novice training plan again. I'm sure I could handle the intermediate plan, but to be honest the whole tempo and pace and 400 x however many K's just sounds confusing. I'm using the same plan, but I am pushing myself to go faster. That is a whole lot easier with my new Garmin Forerunner 305! (disclaimer: it's not that easy when you don't realize that there is a backlight so the only time you can see your pace is when you are under a streetlamp) I do *heart* the Forerunner so far, if only because it tells me that I am running faster and further than my nike+ipod. Yes, I've been wearing both for comparison and also to keep my balance. The Forerunner is not exactly small and sleek y'all.

Things I've learned lately: running in the dark and snow is not my favorite thing to do. Especially not when I lock myself out of the car and have to run home down a 55mph country road in the dark. Gah.

T minus one month!

Holy cow y'all!!!!!!!! (insert laughter here) The 1/2 marathon is one month from today! I feel good, I feel like I'll be ready. I had a great run last night - 3 miles at 10:10 per mile. Unfortunately, you'll just have to take my word on that because my stupid piece of crap effing ipod lost my run. Bastard. Of course it just had to be the best pace I've run in a looooong time. Oh well, at least it didn't crap out during my run. We'll see if it holds up tonight on my 4-5 mile run - I haven't decided on the distance yet.

I am trying to figure out my training plan for next week. We are going out of town Friday morning and we'll get back on Monday evening. So next week I'll probably run Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday. I am signed up for a point-to-point 5K on Saturday morning - which will be my 2nd race ever! I can't decide if I want to run just 5K that morning or if I want to try to stretch it out to a 15K - running the distance back and forth 3 times. I hate to miss my long run, and that will be my only opportunity to get one in next weekend. Does anyone have any advice for me? How bad is it to miss a long run this close to the 1/2?

up to speed

So, yes..........I am a little behind on my posting. Let me get you up to speed:

9/22: ballet workout
9/23: 2 miles (I had to take Casey to the vet that afternoon and I could only get in 2 miles before it got dark. Better than nothing!)
9/24: 5 miles
9/25: elliptical
9/26: rest
9/27: rest/slacker
9/28: rest/slacker
9/29: 8.5 miles
9/30: upper body workout
10/1: 4.5 miles
10/2: 3 miles
10/3: 4 miles
10/4: rest
10/5: 9 miles (group run)
10/6: upper body workout
10/7: 5 miles

Ahhhhhhhh, now I'm all caught up - maybe, just maybe I'll be able to keep this updated for one more month until I've completed the 1/2 marathon!!!! I am not nervous about it at all and I'm not sure if it's a good thing or not. My runs have been going so well lately, it's kind of hard to believe. Last night I did 5 miles with no problem at all - not even the knee pain that I usually experience when I start out. I also added a steep hill to my run last night and it was a lot easier than the last time I attempted it. I guess that means I'm getting better? No faster though - meh.

My training schedule for the rest of the week is tentative because of the weather. I will probably try to run today and tomorrow and then take Friday off. I'll do my long run (9.5 or 10 miles) Saturday morning because I am doing a charity 10K walk on Sunday morning. After that, I'll take a well deserved rest! For a few hours, at least................

getting started

Let me start off by saying that I have never been a runner. I never even liked running. I thought it was boring. I thought it was too hard and not something that I could ever do. Well, that changed late last summer when I decided that I wanted to run a 5K on vacation. On vacation? What was I thinking? I started off doing the Couch to 5K training plan and ended up shocking myself by finishing my first (and only, so far) 5K in under 30 minutes!

After that race in October I took a few months off. I just wasn't committed enough to run through the winter in the cold and the dark. Once spring and daylight savings time hit, I was ready to get back on the road. I thought for sure that I would barely make it a 1/2 mile that first day out. I shocked myself once again for running about 2 miles without a problem.

I've kept at it and that brings me to where I am today. I'm training to run my first half-marathon later this year with my cousin. Hence the title of my blog - I am 31 years old and I'll be running 13.1 miles in November. I am following a modified version of Hal Higdon's half-marathon training plan. I say modified because the program is designed to train you in 12 weeks, but I have 20 weeks to play with. I am going to take it slow and probably repeat a few of the beginning weeks depending on how I feel.

I am so excited to be doing this! I hope to blog after each run to keep track of how it went and how I'm feeling. See you at the finish line!