I haven’t posted much on here lately. But it isn’t because I haven’t been doing
much.
Sometimes I hesitate to put stuff out here on the internet, just in case I slip.
Don’t stick to my goals. Massive fear
of failure. Public failure. But then that kind of defeats the purpose of
putting one’s training and goals on the blog – for public accountability. That’s one of the reasons I started up the blog again when I
decided it was time to get my “stuff” together.
But of course, making the decision to get one’s ass in gear doesn’t mean
there won’t be slips. Times when I
fail. When I just don’t feel like
working out. And that’s what’s happened
this week.
I rocked things last Saturday – ran/walked 5.8 miles. Then, I relaxed. Took Sunday off, deliberately, to give the
feet a rest. But then, when I had plans
to get up and run on Monday morning, the 4:15 am wake up didn’t happen. Or rather, I woke up, then decided I was too
tired. Then the same thing
yesterday. Then the same thing this
morning. Thankfully, I’ve only had 3
days of madness. I’m stopping it now.
Yes, 4:15 am is an early wake up. But that’s what it’s got to be to get to the
gym and get my run in before getting the morning routine going for my
posse.
As I mentioned before, my running goal is the St. Augustine
Half Marathon in November, which gives me 3 months to build up my distance and
make myself ready for this bad-boy.
After my first half-marathon blog post a few weeks ago, which I assumed
would be relatively anonymous, I discovered that thanks to Google+ putting it
all out there, my dad read the post and emailed his concerns about whether I
knew what the heck I was getting into.
He’s a former runner, who’s done half and full marathons in his past,
and he knows how hard these can be. So I
figured I’d clarify my intentions.
My goal is to complete
the half. I’m not trying to set any
land speed records. I’m totally
comfortable with the fact that some walking will almost certainly take place
and that my pace may seem more like a trot than a run. That said, I’m definitely taking my training
seriously. I’ve been running off and on
for the last six months and consistently since early summer. And I’m adding extra distance on my feet in
the form of long walk/runs on the weekends.
The plan is for these to be actual runs as my endurance builds up.
I started out by following the Couch-to-5K plan, which works
you up to doing a 5 kilometer run (hence the 5K), or 3.1 miles. I’m not going to lie; I still don’t run 3.1
miles straight through. I usually stop
for a breather walk at about each mile or so.
But I’m cool with this. However,
now that I’ve hit August, I’ll be officially starting the half-marathon
training plan next weekend (ready or not, here I come!). I’m following a training plan by Hal Higdon –
his Novice 2 plan, but with modifications.
It’s a 12-week plan that gradually builds you up to the 13.1 mile
distance with runs on Saturday, Sunday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. However, I find I need a little more rest on
my legs (no doubt because of the extra weight I’m carrying), so I’m generally
only running 4 days a week, not 5. And
my Sunday run is generally a run/walk, so my legs don’t completely die!
So far, its been awesome.
I remembered loving running back in the day. I just needed to get consistent enough that
the endorphins kick in. So. After taking several days off, I’m going to
either run tonight after work or tomorrow morning before.
Stay tuned . . .
