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.

the other stuff

You may or may not have noticed that I changed the title of my blog after the half-marathon. I wanted to keep blogging, but not solely about running. Ha! That idea went well - I took a little hiatus and blogged about nothing at all. But now I'm back, with an entry about.......drumroll please.............running!

I ran a 10K Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving morning. Let's just say that staying out drinking until 2:00am the night before a race is not a great idea. Especially when said race is comprised almost entirely of HILLS. Gah. The race sucked, it really did. It was cold out, I was possibly a *little* hungover, and did I mention the hills? The only thing that kept me going was the promise of a trip to Starbucks after the race. Mmmmm.........crack in a cup. Oh yeah, you're probably wondering about my finishing time. Couldn't be great, right? Um, 58:22 - take that uphill race!

Unfortunately, pulling out that time took a lot out of me. I started feeling under the weather on Saturday and was unable to run for about 2.5 weeks. I was worried about how a break that long would affect me. It was hard to get the motivation to get back out there, but I finally did this past Sunday. I did 2 miles that day, 3 miles Monday, and then 3.3 miles last night. The weather has been really mild this week which has made it SO much easier to go outside and do it. I hope I can keep this momentum going once it gets cold again.

I'll do my best to update again soon, but if it takes me a while let me go ahead and say Merry Christmas!

confirmation

My nike+ipod is indeed a bastard. I wore that little effer for the half-marathon and it had the nerve to tell me that I only ran 12.32 miles. Um, yeah nike+, like you're right about the distance and the race officials screwed it up. I.don't.think.so.

my stats

My chiptime was 2:06:36, which means I ran a 9:40 pace. I truly did not expect to finish that fast and I am thrilled with my time!

Related news - the results were finally posted from the 5K that I ran in October. My official time was 28:58, which means my actual time was at least a few seconds faster. I also ran 6 miles that morning prior to the race. I'm thinking that I could finish a 5K at a pretty good pace if I was fresh. I'll get a chance to test that theory in early December!

i did it!

And it was awesome! Details to come :-)

my bags are packed, i'm ready to go

This is it!! We're getting ready to head out to the OBX for my first half-marathon. This is never something that I thought I would be able to do, much less WANT to do. I feel excited and ready.

To anyone reading this thinking "I could never do that," remember that up until about a year ago, I had never run one mile straight in my life. And I'm old, so that's a long time. *if you're old like me, you probably caught the song reference in the post title :-)

The weather looks good, we've got a free place to stay, my parents (and all 4 of our dogs!) are coming, and I've got an awesome group to run with. It's going to be a great weekend.

p.s. although it does suck to load your car in the pouring rain.

why am i doing this again?

I spent three hours trying to take a nap today in three different places - on the couch, in the bed, and then finally in the guest room bed. I didn't sleep a bit, although I did get to watch Obama's first press conference - he looks exhausted. His speech today wasn't as powerful as what we're used to, but I am still excited for him to take office.

I'm sorry, this is not meant to be a political post. This is meant to be a post about ME. Me being tired, me being stressed, me being this close to faking an injury to get out of this whole weekend. Dramatic? Yes. But it's how I feel. I hate that I get stressed out so easily over the littlest things. It's not that I like being that way, I just am.

I've calmed down a bit since those thoughts went through my head earlier. I've gotten almost everything packed and I'm finally sitting on the couch with my laptop, my wine, and What Not to Wear on TV. Ahhhhh. A little time to relax before the weekend begins.