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13 Weeks to 13 Miles! OUC Orlando Half Marathon Training: Week 2

It's week two of half marathon training! Yay! So far, the training plan has remained fairly easy. I know those long runs are coming and I'm not looking that forward to them. Though I'm not worried about it either. Here's how this week went...

Monday
Plan: Cross Training, Actual: 1.3 mile walk with Will (2.8mph)
Today the plan called for cross training. I don't have a lot of extra time to do something significant but at least walking lets me get out, get moving and is easier on my body than running. So, I'm calling my walk today my cross training. I decided this morning that if I didn't do something, I was not going to get anywhere near my step goal. So, after running a few errands, Will and I decided to go for a short walk. I tried to convince him to sit in the stroller so I could go faster, but he really wanted to walk. So I told him that if he thought he could do it without complaining, he could walk. He did great! We didn't move nearly as fast as I would like, but it was honestly sort of nice to just be outside and walking with my little guy. We are alone frequently because he doesn't have school on Monday, but I feel like this was a nice use of our alone time and we actually chatted some as we walked. He is getting so big, so very fast. I'm going to miss my time with him next year when he is in school.

Tuesday
Plan: 3 Miles, Actual: 3 Miles
It felt good to get up and go this morning. I love running in the morning. It was actually sort of "cool" this morning, too. Granted, "cool" is a relative term here in Central Florida. I mean... it was 74 degrees with 90% humidity... but there was a slight breeze when I started and since the sun wasn't up yet, it wasn't blistering hot. I stayed with my 1:1 intervals. I know I could probably increase this, but I'm actually enjoying running using it. So, even though I think I could push it for right now, I'm choosing not to as I want to enjoy my time during the half marathon. By the end of training, I may be doing longer intervals. It is likely I will; however, I decided already that if this is what I end up sticking with throughout the process and into the race, I won't be sad about it. As it is right now, I average a 13:30 pace for 3 miles. If I can maintain that pace for 13.1, I would finish in just under 3 hours. Honestly, I didn't even think that would be possible for me but now it seems like it could be. So we will just keep pressing on and evaluate goals as we go. My plan is to run the U Can Finish in October (5 miles) potentially using the 1:1 intervals and see how that turns out. The half is only about 2.5 times that race so it will be easier for me to see how my goals may work out. I tend to be faster in races so I'm hoping I see a slight increase in pace. We shall see.

Wednesday
Plan: Rest, Actual: 2.3 mile walk
I ended up watching a friend's little guy for part of the day this day so I decided we would take a walk while he was at our house. We ended up going for over two miles because he seemed like he was enjoying pointing out all the birds and bugs to me as we walked and the weather has been getting a bit nicer lately. Plus, I needed to get as close to my step goal as possible so I wouldn't have to walk later in the evening after baseball practice.

Thursday
Plan: 3 Miles, Actual: 3 Miles
This run was pretty nice as far as weather goes. I was pretty slow though because I wasn't feeling it. I didn't want to get up. Whereas I was super ready on Tuesday, Thursday I was dragging. I did get up and go though and I felt good after. I was so tired the rest of the day though. I did the 1:1 intervals and ran a loop back and forth on the road behind our house. It was trash day and I decided to stick farther away from where our neighborhood bear tends to hang out. While I really want to see him one of these days, I wasn't feeling it this day so I decided to try to stay out of his way. There have been a ton of sightings of him lately either later in the evening or super early mornings. I also wanted a route with minimal hills so I decided to stick to an out and back type route that I knew would have minimal elevation change.

Friday
Plan: Rest, Actual: 1.45 mile walk
Honestly... what is "rest" anyway? Most days, if I am expecting to hit my 10,000 step goal, I have to take some sort of walk. It may not be one I map and can tell you stats on, but I have to walk. I might take a trip or two around the cul-de-sac behind our house or go up and down the hill in front of our house... but I have to walk. Steven worked from home this day so we took a short walk in the morning before it was time to go pick up Will from school. The weather has just been so great lately with a constant breeze so we couldn't pass off going on a walk. Plus, it is always nice to go on a walk that is just the two of us. We took it easy though so I guess this is still "rest."

Saturday
Plan: 3.5 Miles, Actual: 3.5 Miles
So initially my plan was to take Saturday as a rest day and run before church on Sunday morning. Then that annoying UCF loss happened and I had to run off some energy so I went for a night run. I remembered afterwards why I don't do that often. Night running is not for me. I was tired. I hit two miles and all I could think was that instead of only having one mile left, I had one and a half. I was DONE. I had to finish though. Plus, I was about a mile and a half fro the house so I didn't have much of a choice. I'm also dealing with a new weird pain. What's new, really? Backstory: I gave birth to both kids via c-section. Kenzie was very routine. Will started that way but when the docs realized he was lodged in my hip and they couldn't get him out... AND he had his cord wrapped around his neck four times, they ripped my muscles (in lieu of cutting them) to get better access to him and then used a vacuum to get him out. My doc told me that because of them ripping them, they weren't as careful obviously (but we had to get him out) and I may have some additional pain. Sometimes I randomly get a burning or pain around my incision scar. I haven't had it in a while but it flared up this weekend and it HURTS when I run. I think it is because of my posture when I run. It's annoying and weird... but I'm sure it will get better and we will make it work.

Sunday
Plan: Rest, Actual: Rest
So I didn't even have to take a walk on Sunday. Honestly though... I was cheating. We did quite a bit of yard work which gives me about 4,000 steps on average but I almost had my goal when we got home from church thanks to the worship set that morning. I was singing with the team and all of our songs were crazy upbeat. A LOT of clapping. Between rehearsal before services and two services... I clapped enough to almost get my goal. Apparently my watch gets confused between walking and frantic style clapping. Hilarious. I knew that technically I hadn't walked as much as I should have, but that worship set was a bit of a workout all in its own so I called it a day. Plus, I honestly walked almost enough steps for real that the clapping didn't take up that many of the 10,000 goal.

Another week down. I'm curious to see how the next week goes. With my new pain at my scar, it should be interesting. Also, the cooler weather is amazing and should help. We have a race Saturday evening but the plan calls for 4 miles so both of us will likely run one mile in the morning and then complete the 5k in the evening. Kenzie is walking it with me again so it will be mostly walking for me... but we should be good.

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