a post about not running

Well, this doesn't ALWAYS have to be about running or of the pursuit of running goals. Nay, this post is being written during my self-imposed 2 week break from running. I've had a nagging ankle injury off and on since April and it tends to flare up when I push my speed. Last week I attempted what was going to be a quick two mile run and had plans on incorporating some sprints. What really ended up happening was some major ankle/ shin pain after one sprint. I ended up hobbling about 1.5 miles and called it quits. I need to really give that ankle some time to heal, so I'm on a break.

Wait, I said this wasn't about running!

Since I'm on my break, I have focused my attention on the elliptical and the bike, which has been a nice change of pace!

But, this post isn't really about my cross-training efforts either.

Nah, we are going with the cliched "weight-loss" post. Amidst all of my athletic goals is the other goal. The "finally shed the pounds and pounds of weight added to my body during my pregnancy marathon of 3 pregnancies in 3 years" goal.

I half hoped that simply training for and running a half marathon would magically strip the excess pounds from my body. It always seems I'm hearing stories about people becoming these sleek, toned gods and goddesses after running for a few months. Or maybe that's just what I thought I heard.

I also hoped that running would be enough to take care of it. I really didn't want to have to change my eating habits at all. I love food. Sure I love many foods that are healthy, but I also have a special place in my heart for bread...cheese...ice cream...pizza... you know, standard fatty fare. Anywho, after an initial 10 lb weight loss after I began my training, the weight loss came to a screeching halt.

So here I am, ready to commit to better choices. Last week I downloaded the "my fitness pal" app to my phone and started tracking my calories. For me, it's always easier to skip the random snacks or the second third helping of a meal if I know I have to log the calories. Mostly it's because I'm lazy and can't be bothered with the extra work it takes to log the calories of miscellaneous foods.

The neat thing about "my fitness pal" is that there is a barcode scanner that you can use when logging your calories. For example, if you drink a can of soda and don't want to enter in the info manually, you just select the scanner button and point it at the barcode on the can. and DONE. It's all entered in the system.

************************************************************************************

Confession: I started this blog entry a few days ago and haven't gotten around to finishing. I have to confess my sins. I am *MOSTLY* making better choices...but I may have had pizza for lunch today.... and it's possible I ate several hot dogs over the weekend. Surprisingly I've managed to keep close to my daily allotted calories in spite of this.

I am writing this post because I'm sure that many can relate to wanting to commit to lifestyle changes and at times find it difficult to follow through. Or maybe not.... either way, I plan on sporadically peppering in some weight loss topics in the blog from time to time. I need accountability to help me follow through with my goals, and what better form of accountability is there than to tell the world handful of people who read this.

I'm not throwing out any hard figures here (i.e. I'm not spilling my weight...today anyway), but I have a goal of 1.5 lbs of weight loss per week and to keep up with logging my calories and working out at least 5 days a week. There. Now hold me to it!

A little rain would have been nice!

Remember when I was all "wah wah wahhhhh!! It's going to rain!!"

Well, it didn't rain. Weirdly, all the craaaazy looking rain/ thunderstorms on the radar literally just stopped just miles outside of Fargo and headed north.

I thought I was excited about that. And then we started running. It was only 70 degrees out, but the dewpoint was also near 70. It felt like Florida, just without the benefits of being in Florida.

My lungs were pissed off. I'm rather avoidant in terms of running in annoying weather. I tend to hit the treadmill couch if it's rainy, windy, humid, snowing. It's a terrible habit and I know I need to expose myself to all conditions when I run.

I just wasn't prepared for last night's humidity.

The first two miles were awful and I just couldn't get in a groove. Mile 3 was great. But then at mile 4 I started feeling lightheaded and nauseous (was that from humidity? dehydration? both?). I've never felt like that while running before so I wasn't sure how to handle that. I thought maybe if I tried some GU that would help. It did not.

My stomach eventually settled a little and the last mile or so went fine. We only stopped to walk once for a minute or two, even though my brain was trying to tell me to quit pretty much the whole time.

I was able to maintain pretty much the exact pace as my practice run on Saturday. My friend Beth and I finished at 1 hr 16 minutes (12:20 pace). We were not last. There were tons about five people who finished after us.
But it's not about that, right? But I do want to continue to improve on my times and I'm looking at the big picture in that I still cut my pace from 13:30 to 12:20. And I finished. And I didn't have to run to the curb to puke (thankfully).



I managed to muster a smile and show off my fake running moves for the camera at least! :)

weather update... this could get interesting.

Below is a screen shot of the radar map. it's 4pm. Race begins at 7pm. Who wants to take bets that I will be swimming the 10k rather than running it?

10k + storms = ???

Wahooooo! Excited!!






The weather forecast calls for "rain and possibly strong storms" for tonight. Nothing like a little inclement weather to amp up the drama factor, eh? For the record, I can't recall EVER having pleasant weather for any races I've been in. The two 5k's I walked were damp and cool. The 10k I ran/walked last year was rainy the whole time. The 10 mile race I did in mid April was 30 degrees and had SNOWED the night before. And the half-marathon last month wasn't awful, but it was definitely cloudy and humid (luckily little rain actually fell).

I do appreciate that this is an evening event. It's nice not to have to wake up at the ass crack of dawn!

I'm really looking forward to tonight. My good friend Beth decided at the last minute that she would run with me, which is awesome. It's nice to have company and I think we'll have a blast :)

My only worry for tonight is blisters. I managed to get a couple of sizable blisters on my right foot during my practice run on Saturday, so I have to run to Target to pick up some blister protector stuff.

Oh! And I have been reading this AMAZING blog over the past few days! http://bendoeslife.com/

It's written by a guy (in his mid-20's or so) who decided a couple of years ago to get his life in order and get healthy. He started at 360 pounds and has since lost 120. I heard about it from a friend who is planning on running in one of his "Do Life" 5k events. Apparently he is going all over the US and holding free 5k run/walk events in order to promote the idea of getting out and "doing life." I don't describe it very eloquently, so just check out the link to his blog. I wanted all of the back story, so I am reading it from the beginning (all 280 pages of blog posts. It's taken me almost a week to get through about 50 pages. But it's super interesting and inspiring!!)

Have a great Tuesday! Wish us luck tonight!

Found: Confidence (with a side of sweaty salt-stache)!

Forget all that noise yesterday about being all afraid of little 'ol 10K's!

Today's weather was absolutely perfect! Sunshine, low humidity, 68 degrees, NO wind (a rarity here in Fargo/Moorhead).

The thing I like to do to get myself excited for a run is to map a route I've never taken before. I like to use MapMyRun.com to plot out a route. I decided to check out one of the bike paths in Fargo. I had no idea how long and extensive this path is- and it's nice and smooth. Only complaint is there is hardly any shade along the path, so even though it was not quite 70 degrees, I was HOT. In fact I think I might have been nearing heat exhaustion by the end- was feeling mentally slow and had a hard time thinking. Was also a bit nauseous. Whatevs.

So the thing I was most proud of today was my pace! 12:23 min/mile! Average long run pace is usually around 13:30. My first few miles were sub 12:00, but I slowed a bit during the last 3.

Confession: I did stop for about 1 minute at the halfway point to eat a GU (and take a picture of my Garmin to post on Facebook. Only I would interrupt what I am doing to post on FB) :)

(A technical question: why can I only get the pictures to post at the top of this entry? I wanted to insert a picture right here, but it ended up at the top. Meh).

Anywho, it was a wonderful run and a definite confidence boost!

After my run I treated myself to a celebratory Grande Iced Coffee from Starbucks. I thought the girl in the drive thru window was giving me a funny look..... As I drove away, I looked in the mirror and saw a very impressive sweaty salt mustache above my upper lip. Sexy.

Below is the link to my run stats. It looks all funky when I try to link it. Gah, technology.

Missing: confidence

It's funny how quickly confidence can dissipate, especially since I've not been "officially" training for a few weeks now.

Just 3 weeks ago I ran the half marathon, but since then the longest run I've done was a shade under 3 miles. The rest of my runs have only been 1-2 miles (my 6 months ago self would never have thought I'd insert the word "only" in front of 2 miles!).

Now, the lack of running has been an intentional move. I had a number of random ailments that have needed a little time to heal. I'm pretty sure it's not normal to wince in pain whenever I put weight on my left ankle...right? The good news is that everything is feeling healthy now, save for a few twinges of pain in my ankle from time to time.

But I digress. Being out of a regular running routine and not following a specific schedule has done wonders for killing my confidence in my ability to run.

This is problematic in that I am registered to run a 10K in 4 days. 6.2 miles. And why does that sound so scary all of a sudden? At the time I signed up, I thought- oh this will be easy and fun to "just" do 10K. And now I'm nervous.

I think part of my fear stems from the fact that I run at a pretty slow pace. This was fine in the half marathon because there were thousands of people running it- I knew that there would be no possible way I'd come in last place.

Smaller races, however, seem to carry some added pressure. I have mentioned before that I ran a 10 mile race during my half marathon training and literally came in dead last. And not just dead last, but dead last by a good 10 minutes. The moment I crossed the finish line they began tearing down the finish line.

Who cares, right? I don't.... but I kind of do.

So as this 10K approaches I am feeling more and more nervous about it. It sounds ridiculous, right? I just don't want to be last again. And I probably won't be....but there is always a chance. You see, the next "phase" of running for me is to work on improving my speed, but like I said, I've been on hiatus and haven't done much, speed-wise.

I think the only thing that will calm my nerves about Tuesday's race is to do a 5 or 6 mile run sometime before then, just to remind myself it's no big deal.

So that's the plan. Tomorrow I run. 6 miles. 6.2 miles if I'm feeling bold :)

Seriously, my biggest enemy is my stupid brain. Now I finally understand the saying about running being like 10% ability and 90% mental....

And in TOTALLY unrelated news- just a second ago I noticed that our baby girl cut her first tooth finally :) In case you care.

Happy Friday!

Edit: I'm excited to run a new route today! Going to try out the bike paths in Fargo

Heather's Creative Life: [MN]Love and Marriage

A friend from high school just wrote this blog post and I have to share it! Very well written post about the proposed amendment to the MN constitution defining marriage as between a man and a woman. It scares me that discrimination could potentially be written into our state's constitution....

Here is the link to her post!

Heather's Creative Life: [MN]Love and Marriage

Embarrassment smells a bit like chlorine

Well THAT was awkward....

First, before I get into the story of embarrassment, chlorine, and whatnot; a little background.

So I've been going on my merry way doing this running biz lately and really loving it. My original goal in January was to train for and run a half marathon. No focus on time, just finishing. I figured I would accomplish my goal and move on. You know, maybe some recreational running here and there, but really nothing beyond that.

Oops, so one thing I should mention is I have a bit of an addictive/ competitive personality.

Great, now I'm hooked. I'm like a running junkie and start jonesing if I go too long without it. Within days of finishing my first half marathon, I was already looking into more races to run. Next up is a 10k next Tuesday, and then another half marathon in September. So much for moving on.

It would all be so simple if I could just keep my focus on running, but THEN one of my friends (Amber, the ultra-athletic friend) started talking triathlons..... Initially I told her no. HELL no. Not in a billion years would you catch me doing one of those.

Why? In the hierarchy of exercises (ranked from best to worst) it goes:
1. eating (um, hey- it's a sport...right?)
2. running
3. rollerblading
4. strength training
5. elliptical machines
6. biking
19. swimming

Notice the gap between biking and swimming. I can't think of other things off the top of my head, but I'm certain that there are probably a good handful of other exercises that I could do better than swimming.

Point being, I'm not a biking enthusiast. I don't like how it makes my ass and nether region hurt (sorry, it had to go there). I own a bike, a mountain bike, not one of those fancy "road bikes" that the fast cyclists use. I honestly never even knew there was a difference between the two until not too long ago. I'm not incapable of biking, I just don't prefer it.

Incapable, however, is the word I would use to describe swimming. My only formal swim training was in Jr High and I honestly never could get the hang of it. I'm not so inept that I would drown immediately upon entering a body of water. I can do enough to go very short distances, but it's sloppy at best. The stroke I am best at is the back stroke because that doesn't require me to stick my face in water, but even then I can't do it in a straight line. If I do lap swimming I end up 5 lanes over from where I began.

But ever since that friend threw out the idea of triathlon, after my initial "hell no!" I've been secretly entertaining the idea.... though I had no idea of my baseline skill level in biking and swimming as it has been years since I've done either.

Fast forward to yesterday morning. Instead of heading to the treadmill or elliptical, I hopped on a spinning bike. This one looked intriguing as it had a giant video screen on it. The neat thing about this bike is I was able to plug in my headphones and essentially do a spinning class by following the video.

Surprisingly, it wasn't all that bad! I've done a couple of actual spinning classes at the Y a few years back and I recall it being torture (then again it was at 6 in the morning- ick). I managed to do 10 miles in just under 30 minutes- way better than I thought.

After my semi-successful bike ride, I moved on to do a quick mile on the treadmill, which also went well. I was able to maintain a faster pace than I usually run, and I added some incline here and there for good measure.

I was feeling pretty good after my workout at the gym, in fact I was feeling so good that I thought I'd try my hand at lap swimming.

For clarification, the last time I had swam an actual lap in a pool for the purpose of exercise was.... oh, about 11 years ago. No lie. But I thought to myself "hey, how hard could it be?"

I grabbed my suit and $3 for pool admission and headed to the pool- feeling pretty good about myself!

Upon entering the pool area there are a sea of professional looking swim folk- donning goggles and swim caps, gliding gracefully through the water. They even did that thing where they got to the end of the lane and then turned around by flipping underwater (is there a technical term for that??).

Suddenly fear overtook me and erased the swagger I had just moments earlier. They were making it look so easy.... I began to have some serious self-doubt.

After staring at the pool for a good 10 minutes, I finally jumped in and stared across to the other end of the pool. Only 50 meters...not so bad....right? My goal was to do 10 laps, which didn't seem like that big of a deal.

One final deep breath and off I went.... aaaannnnndddd about 15 seconds later I remembered: SHIT. I forgot that I really can't swim all that well. I am by nature very uncoordinated and I've really never been able to master the breathing while swimming thing. In fact, I rarely ever stick my face in the water. Unfortunately, this makes for some very sloppy swimming (if you could call what I was doing "swimming").

Let's face it, what I was doing was NOT swimming, it was more like "avoiding death and embarrassment."

I managed to avoid death, but I can't say the same about avoiding embarrassment.

I finally reached the other end of the pool after trying about 5 different swimming strokes, doing none of them well. The only one I felt mildly comfortable with was the backstroke, but even then I couldn't do it in a straight line- I ended up 2 lanes over and nearly collided with another swimmer.

ONE LAP. That was all I had done and I was already worn out and defeated. I imagined that everyone was judging me and thinking what an awful swimmer I was (I know this is probably not true, but I was feeling completely out of place in that moment). I sat there at the end of the pool for several minutes and went across again. It pretty much went exactly how the first lap went- terribly.

I eased my way out of the pool and slinked over to one of the poolside chairs. I felt ridiculous and tried to determine my next course of action. Would people notice that I was leaving after only 2 laps? Would I look totally foolish?

I determined that people probably didn't notice me as much as I thought they did and I probably looked silly just sitting in a chair starting into space.

So I left. Not even 20 minutes after I had arrived, I was admitting defeat. Pool- 1, Teresa- 0.

I don't know what the take away message is from this story, other than I guess I'm glad I double checked my swimming skills before I attempted a triathlon. I really had considered just registering for the triathlon my friend suggested and figured that swimming 1/3 mile wouldn't be too difficult.

For the record, 2 laps= .06 mile. POINT ZERO SIX.

While there may be a triathlon in my future, it won't be any time soon. Similar to running, swimming will require me to do a fair amount of training... and really mastering the basics. I'll put that on my to-do list, but for now I think I'll stick to running.

Michael Phelps, you may now breathe a sigh of relief. You don't have to worry about me shattering any of your records for a little while.

Unitards and Sparkles

After the half marathon my body was reeeeallly sick of running. Running 4 times a week for 5 months wreaked havoc on my feet, ankles, shins, and hips. So the past couple of weeks I've been trying to change up my workout routine a little. I thought for sure I would be so excited to take a break from running that I wouldn't run at all for awhile. The crazy thing is that I really have missed it. But I know I need to give my body a little break, so I've only run a few times in the last couple of weeks.

I have a free 1 month membership at one of the gyms in town, so I've been taking advantage of that to do more strength training and use some different cardio equipment. We have a treadmill, elliptical, hand weights, a kettlebell, and some DVD's at home, but for some reason it seems easier to stay motivated when I have to actually go somewhere for my workout.

I have NEVER been a morning worker-outer. EVER. I've tried for years to force myself to the gym at the ass crack of dawn, but somehow the snooze button calls to me and sleep ends up trumping the gym.

Because I am staying home with my kiddos for the summer, the only time I can really get to the gym is right away in the morning before my hubby goes to work. So I have been fighting the snooze button and have actually made it to the gym at 5am several times in a row. Go ME!

As I got to the gym bleary eyed and wondering what the hell I was doing there before the sun had even risen, something happened that made it all worth it.....

I went to the locker room to fill my water bottle when suddenly from around the corner appears the spunkiest elderly woman I've ever encountered. Let me paint a picture for you, though it will be difficult to do her justice.

The first thing I noticed was, of course, the 1980's style unitard. It was like Jane Fonda meets High School Wrestler.

Next was the scarf tied neatly around her neck. Fancy.

Let's move on to the glitter, shall we? Her arms and chest sparkled in the dim lights of the locker room.

This description would not be complete without the perfume.... hard to describe the scent. Kind of a heavy, musky flowery aroma. The entire locker room smelled of it.

As I was trying to process what I was seeing, she yelled in my direction "HEY! ARE YOU GOING TO BOX WITH US THIS MORNING?!?!" I was so taken aback, I just sputtered "no" and quickly left the locker room.

I didn't know whether to be frightened by her or totally impressed!

She stuck in my brain as I was laboring on the elliptical machine, I think the glitter may have hypnotized me? But as I reached those moments during my workout when I would think "eh, I know I set the workout to 45 minutes, but maybe 20 would be enough? I would start to think myself out of my workout and then I would glance over to the group fitness room. Grandma Glitter was boxing the hell out of kickboxing class. She was ripped and totally kept up with everyone else. And I kept going with my workout. I even added a mile of running for good measure after the 45 minute elliptical workout. I think she was my inspiration to run faster than I've ever run a mile.

So in the end I decided that I am totally impressed by her. I hope when I'm 70+ years old I'm kicking ass at the gym....maybe just without the unitard and glitter ;)

Gear I love #2: Sports Bra

Ladies and gentlemen (I don't want to make assumptions, but I'm guessing the man-folk aren't particularly interested in this post): I present to you THE SPORTS BRA. This, my friends, is the mamma jamma of boob holders.

I'm gonna keep it real right now: I have great big boobs. The sisters need all the support they can get and for years I've struggled to find the right sports bra. When I began my training I was just 8 weeks postpartum and was also breastfeeding, which made it even more complicated to find a sports bra in my size.

Folks, I LOVE Target. I do. So I thought I would begin my search for a new sports bra there. I bought an XXL Champion that promised "great support." Hours later I excitedly hopped onto the treadmill. Moments later I had two black eyes.

So I asked around, I read reviews, I googled the crap out of "sports bras for large chests." And I kept seeing "Moving Comfort" as the top reviewed sports bras.

I went to Scheels and tried on a bazillion bras. The sales associate assured me that the best bra for my size is the Moving Comfort Juno bra. Sure enough, it fit perfectly. It is supposed to have a tight fit, but it wasn't uncomfortably tight. I did the jump test and there was practically zero bounce!

This style retails around $52. I have never forked out more than $20 on a sports bra before, but then again, I never did a lot of high impact exercise. This bra is worth every penny. I've used it for every workout for the past 6 months and it's in perfect condition still. The straps are wide and comfortable. They are adjusted with velcro. I was worried about the velcro not holding or wearing out after time, but it has not been an issue at all. This bra doesn't give you a uniboob look either like many bras I have owned. It is now a little bit loose, but I don't think it stretched out- I have lost some inches. Even with it being loose-ish, it still works great. Even with all of the sweating I've done in it, it doesn't hold on to any residual funk.

Confession: I don't wash my sports bra after every workout. Some people do, I don't. But like I said, this bra doesn't hold on to funk! It seriously doesn't stink even after wearing it for a few runs. Don't judge! I know it sounds gross :) Oh, and if you are looking for a good laundry detergent for your stinky workout clothes- I really like Tide Sport with Febreze. Clothes still smell relatively fresh even after a run!

So, a little on the spendy side, but I'll never go back to Target sports bras again! :)

Half Marathon Training- the gory details

So as I was saying, I bit the bullet and registered for my first half marathon on January 31st. Date of the race was May 21st, so I was hoping and praying that I would have enough time to transform myself from cardiovascularly inferior, lead stump-like legs into some type of running machine. I knew this would be a huge undertaking.

If I was going to do this, I wasn't going to suffer alone. Oh no, I wanted others to suffer alongside me. My friend Michele was actually the person who kept encouraging me to register for the half, so I encouraged (bullied) some other friends who were on the fence too. Soon, there were a large handful of us who began training. YAY!

The training program many of us were going to use was a 12 week beginners program that was modified to a 14 week program. Basically the first couple of weeks were just repeats of weeks 1 and 2 of the 12 week program. Many of us were beginners and felt we could benefit from a couple extra weeks of training.

The thing I liked about the training program we used was that it was simple. Some of the programs I found online seemed either a) too complicated with lots of jargon, pacing, etc or b) too many days of running in the week. When training began, baby was not even 3 months old and life was a little frazzly in our household. Oh, and did I mention that my husband also decided to train for the half? This would require some creative scheduling as we couldn't run at the same time.

The training program we used mostly consisted of 3-4 days of running a week and a day of crosstraining. Tuesday and Thursdays averaged 3-4 miles, Saturdays were long runs (the first long run was 4 miles and the last long run was 12), and Sundays were an easy recovery run (about 3 miles). Wednesdays were the CT day.

Confession: I didn't usually do my cross-training. I know, I know, it's important to incorporate other kinds of workouts when doing a training program. There is no excuse really. We have an elliptical at home, so it wouldn't have been difficult. Life was busy, kids were high maintenance, and something had to give.

The first 6 weeks or so I did all of my running on our treadmill, because it was way too cold for this rookie to venture outdoors. Did I mention that where I live (Fargo, ND) won The Weather Channel's Worst Weather contest? Or I think they called it "Toughest Weather City?" Whatever. We have like 9 months of winter and one month of each of the other seasons (or so it seems).

The first 40+ degree day I headed outside for my first official outdoor run. It was amazing! I ran the whole thing without walk breaks and it actually felt easier than the treadmill.

Amazing. Until the run was over and I felt this terrible sharp, popping pain in my right hip. I stretched, I iced, I took more than the recommended dose of ibuprofen and nothing helped.

Enter my first running injury. I went to the Chiropractor the following morning, hardly able to walk. He did some popping of things back into place and told me that I sprained my S/I joint. He told me I had to lay off the running till it felt better, which could be at least a week. I also became the proud owner of a stability belt to wear around my hips. Trust me, it was HOT.

I.was.pissed. I had been really consistent with following the schedule and was afraid if I took time off, I would lose momentum.

But, 10 days later I was up and running again. It was actually a nice break and a good opportunity for me to learn how to go with the flow.

Other small injuries happened along the way: shin splints, ankle soreness, foot cramps. I sometimes slept with ice packs all over me and my various ailments. I bought an ankle brace. I took lots of ibuprofen.

Long runs scared the crap out of me. Every Saturday morning I would pace around the house with my stomach in knots, worrying about the dreaded long run. But they were usually my best run of the week. It takes me awhile to warm up and get in a groove. The first 2.5-3 miles are generally crappy. I usually feel slow and clunky till I hit 3. After that, things suddenly feel great and every mile after that kind of feels the same to me. I never thought I would be one of those annoying people that would say things like "it all feels the same after 4 miles" But it really does kind of feel the same to me. If I kept a slow, steady pace, my body felt fine. Sometimes I ran long runs alone, sometimes I ran with friends. The week I was supposed to do a 9 mile long run, there was a 10 mile race taking place at one of the local colleges, so a couple of us ran that for our training run. I was glad to have so many friends and my husband training for the half with me- they helped keep me motivated through the process.

Confession: a friend and I came in last place in that 10 mile run. We were doing our slow, steady, long run pace... but the other people running I think were actually running for time. Not to mention there were maybe just 100 people doing the 10 mile. And when I say last place, I mean LAST PLACE. By a lot. Like, a lot a lot. But I was happy that I finished it, in spite of the cold weather and the slushy snow on the ground (did I mention that this was the middle of APRIL??).

The last few weeks of our 14 week training started to feel burdensome. I was sick of running all the time and was starting to burn out. I had just done an 11 mile long run and felt confident that if I was going to be able to finish the half. But it was still 3 long weeks away.

Confession: I skipped several runs during those last few weeks of training. My body hurt. My brain was fighting me. So I rested. And for me that was okay. My running partners were all in a similar mindset, which told us that maybe 12 weeks would have been sufficient for training.

So, I survived training and was ready (and terrified) for my first half marathon!

Posted below is the training schedule I used!

Beginners' Half-Marathon Training Schedule

Week	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday
Jan 31-Feb 6	Rest	2 mi	Rest	2.5 mi	Rest	3 mi	2 mi EZ
Feb 7-Feb13	Rest	2 mi	Rest	2.5 mi	Rest	3 mi	2 mi EZ
Feb 14-Feb 20	Rest	2 miles	Rest	3 mi	CT or Rest	4 mi	2.5 mi EZ
Feb 21-Feb 27	Rest	2 miles	Rest	3 mi	CT or Rest	4 mi	2.5 mi EZ
Feb 28-Mar 6	Rest	2.5 mi	CT	3 mi	Rest	5 mi	2 mi EZ
Mar 7-Mar 13	Rest	3 mi	CT	4 mi	Rest	6 mi	3 mi EZ
Mar 14-Mar 20	Rest	3 mi	CT	4 mi	Rest	6 mi	3 mi EZ
Mar 21-Mar 27	Rest	3 mi	CT	3 mi	Rest	7 mi	3 mi EZ
Mar 28-Apr 3	Rest	3 mi	CT	3 mi	Rest	7 mi	3 mi EZ
Apr 4-Apr 10	Rest	4 mi	CT	4 mi	Rest	8 mi	3 mi EZ
Apr 11-Apr 17	Rest	4 mi	Rest	4 mi	CT	9 mi	3 mi EZ
Apr 18-Apr 24	Rest	4 mi	CT	3 mi	Rest	10 mi	3 mi EZ
Apr 25-May 1	Rest	5 mi	CT	4 mi	Rest	11 mi	Rest
May 2-May 8	3 mi EZ	4 mi	Rest	3 mi	CT	12 mi	3 mi EZ
May 9-May 15	Rest	CT	Rest	3 mi	CT	5 mi	2.5 mi EZ
May 16-May 22	Rest	2 mi	20 minutes	Rest	20 minutes	Race Day!	Rest Day!

Note: You can switch days to accommodate your schedule. So if you're busy on another day and prefer to workout on a Monday or Friday, it's fine to swap a rest day for a run day.

Notes about the schedule:

· Mondays: Most Mondays are rest days. Rest is critical to your recovery and injury prevention efforts, so don't ignore rest days.

· Tuesdays and Thursdays: After your warm up, run at a moderate pace (slightly faster than your long run pace) for the designated mileage. Cool down and stretch after your run.

· Wednesdays: Some Wednesdays are designated rest days. Others are cross-training (CT) days, when you should do a cross-training activity (biking, swimming, elliptical trainer, etc.) at easy-to-moderate effort for 30 to 45 minutes.

· Fridays: Do a cross-training (CT) activity (biking, swimming, elliptical trainer, etc.) at easy-to-moderate effort for 30 to 45 minutes. If you're feeling very sluggish or sore on Friday, take a rest day. It's important that you're feeling strong for your Saturday long run.

· Saturdays: This is the day for your long, slow, distance run. Run the designated mileage at an easy, conversational pace. Use your breathing as your guide. You should be able to breathe easily and talk in complete sentences comfortably during your run.

· Sundays: This is an active recovery day. Your short run should be at a very easy (EZ), comfortable pace, which helps loosen up your muscles.