Young Party of Four

It's official! We both get to say that we are half-marathoners. 13.1 miles is no joke. There have been a few times that we have walked that equivalent throughout a day (though it is rare because that is a LOT of walking and you are hard pressed to randomly walk that amount in a day even if you are on a mission), but to purposely try to complete it in a set amount of time all at once... that is some serious stuff. The week leading up to the race was nerve racking for me. I ended up having what I think was my plantar fascitis flare up the Sunday before the race after our last 6 mile training run. It was bad. I developed it a few years back when we lived in a house with almost all tile and it comes and goes randomly depending on activities I have done or shoes I have worn. It hasn't bothered me at all though during training until a week ago. Because of course it would show up a week out from race day. Why the heck not? Let's liven up the mood a little. Freaking heel. As a...

This is it. This is officially the middle week of the 13 weeks to 13 miles training plan. It's the odd man out week. It is also the week after our rest week and the week that things really start to pick up speed. We have mostly done overall low mileage weeks up until this point topping out at 13 miles which is overall less than the half marathon... by a measly .1 mile but that mileage was all divvied up over 3 runs so it's definitely not the same. Now we start ramping up and we don't slow down until the week before the race when we essentially taper. This week is an overall 15 miles and by the end, we will top out at 22 weekly miles. Eek. We can do it! I know we can. I hope. Haha! Tuesday Plan: 4 Miles, Actual: 4 Miles Whew! Another run in the books. This one was probably one of the worst ones so far. Not because I didn't run okay. I was actually fine for most of the run. I kept my 1:1 intervals and paced about 13:30 without too many outliers as far as timing goes. ...

Week 5! Can't believe it. After this week, we have a week "off" with no long run on the weekend so I am looking forward to that. Just because getting these runs in can sometimes be difficult. Next time we train for a half, we may want to consider training for two different ones so our training runs don't have to hit each other. Still not sure how we are going to handle the 10+ mile runs towards the end when we both have to get them done PLUS run a household with two young children. A lot of Netflix for them, maybe? Who knows. Anyway, this is not the official halfway point, but we are getting so close. And with this week's mileage, total mileage for training will officially top 50 miles. That is crazy to me. I have never run that many miles in such a short time. I'm a casual runner at best so this training has been a stretch for me. I'm mostly enjoying it though and I'm loving being able to say that I have accomplished this so far. Monday Plan: Cross...

Let's go! Week 3 is here. 3 mile runs are certainly getting easier each time I do them. We shall see what happens as we start adding more and more mileage as time goes on. This week remained fairly easy. Monday Plan: Cross Training, Actual: Rest I mentioned in my last day's recap that I was having weird pain around my c-section incision. Well, it was still sticking around on Monday so I didn't do anything extra. I hit my 10,000 step goal just doing my everyday normal thing so that was a bonus. I did walk around the cul-de-sac once just to get a few extra steps but I didn't rush and didn't track it or anything. Tuesday Plan: 3 Miles, Actual: 3 Miles Up and at em early again. This getting up at 5:30am thing is definitely getting a bit easier. I still find that I am awake about 20-30 minutes before I have to be with a bit of anxiety about getting up on time that makes it to where not only am I on time, but I'm early getting up because I can't sleep worr...

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 ...

It's been a while since I have done a "series" type post(s). When I first started running, I documented my progress via this blog using the C25K method. Well, after running for four or so years, I have finally worked up the courage to give a half marathon a go. A freaking half marathon. That's 13.1 miles. Steven and I officially registered for the OUC Orlando Half Marathon about a month ago after talking about how this was a goal both of us had. At this point, my main goal? Finish. Finish and be able to say I completed a half marathon. Bonus if I finish in under 3 hours. That seems like a ridiculous amount of time to run... and it probably is. I'm going into this though with minimal time consideration other than less than 15 minutes per mile (which is the recommended slowest pace on the half course so they can reopen roads). A 15 minute mile would let me finish a half in 3 hours, 16 minutes. And hey... if it takes me that long? So be it. But I plan to be done. I w...