Half Marathon Training: Good/Bad/Ugly

Good:

• Having a Training Plan: I put together a schedule to get me to a spring half marathon back in December and have working through it since Jan
• Picking a Target Race: I was eyeing three different races at the beginning of this endeavor and I managed to choose the target race and get registered about month ago.
• Galloway Running: Generally speaking, the Galloway method has been working really well for me.
• Long Run Success:  I successfully completed both an 8 & 9.5 mile runs without issue
• Beach Running:  I ran twice on the beach during vacation.  Yay!

Bad:

• Schedule Nightmare: Having some trouble getting my mid-week runs completed consistently.  Juggling my home/work/school commitments isn't leaving me a very good window for mid-week running right now.

Ugly:

• Return of Knee Pain: Knee pain re-surfaced at mile 6.5 of my long run this weekend.  Had to walk the remaining 2.5 miles back to my car.  Was actually supposed to run farther than the 9.0 miles that this adds up to, so I didn't even get the full mileage in. 

The knee pain return was a surprise.  It hadn't bothered me at all up to that point, and it was a big problem during the long run and for the rest of the day. Still a bit sore now. It might be related to not getting in the mid-week runs consistently and still trying for the long run. Or it might be that my knee simply isn't going hold up for a half marathon.  I am going to rest it the rest of this weekend, and then try some short runs next week to see where I'm at with this. Needless to say, it's discouraging...

Back

Spent the past week in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.  Did some running.  Did some relaxing.  Did some eating. Did some shopping. Did some yoga. Did some sightseeing.

I'm back home now, but work and school are keeping me too busy for a proper post. They say a picture is worth a thousand words, in that case here's the equivalent of 6000 words to tide you over until things settle down for me and I can post again.

Short Update

Husband & I signed up for the Run for the Zoo half marathon.  WooHoo!!

Yesterday, I completed my long run of 9.5 miles.  My legs are a bit tight and it was tiring, but otherwise I feel pretty good.  Yay!

Next week is a cut back week, the week after that I'm scheduled for an 11 mile long run.  It's getting real...

Monday Miscellany

• I'm currently working on a group project for my graduate class. Let me just say this, if I've learned nothing else in my class so far, I've at least learned that I highly dislike team-based academic projects.  Apparently I'm not the only one.  Most people that I've talked to seem to have the same opinion. 
• Husband & I are now officially signed up for the Run for the Zoo Half-Marathon.  WooHoo!
• I seem to be one of the only ones who feels this way, but I love DST.  In fact, I think my body has been on DST for several weeks and now the clock has caught up with me.  I had been getting up at 5am (I don't need to be up until 6) and have been sleeping in the evenings.  Now I'm feeling like everything is the way it is supposed to be. The best is yet to come:  it's now light enough after work to make evening running a possibility!!  If only I didn't have that stinking class sucking up several evenings a week...
• Got tickets for the 2014 home opener  for my beloved minor league baseball team, the Isotopes.  So incredibly excited, you probably wouldn't believe it. I'm a huge fan and we frequently attend games. The 7 months between the end of the minor league season and the beginning in the fall is painful.

• Less than 500 calendar days before I hit the rule of 75. Not that I'm counting down or anything...
• At the moment, I'm on the fence about whether I will continue this graduate program or not. I'm finding it to be incredibly intrusive on my personal life and I'm not sure that I'm getting enough value out of it for my career development.  The plan is to take another class this summer, but at this point I feel it's a coin toss as to whether I will continue on or not.  On a positive note, so far I'm getting good grades.  I feel like I'm a decent student, but maybe this isn't the right program for me?  I'm just not happy about how much I'm actually learning.  There is a whole lot in my current class that I already know. 
• My last few runs were pretty good.  One was 7.4 miles easy.  The other was 2 miles of intervals with hill work. Schedule calls for a 9.5 mile long run this coming weekend. I'm looking forward to it!

Feb Summary

Numbers

• 0 outside cycling
• 30min bike trainer
• 37.1 running
• 21.2 fitness walking
• 1 memorial service for Mom
• 1 race decision made
• 1 oral surgery scheduled
• 1 vacation planned
• 1 new Grandneice born!
• 1 more birthday survived
• 2 pedometers replaced!  I'm on #3!
• 4 tix purchased for an outdoor concert in late May
• Several assignments completed for class
• 0 races completed

Thoughts

• February never shapes up the way I completely want it to, but I'm happy enough that I'm getting outside running fairly regularly again now.

Plans

• Register for Run for Zoo half marathon now that it's officially the spring half that I'm targeting.
• Keep up with school!
• Enjoy upcoming 25th wedding anniversary and vacation.
• Keep training for half marathon. 
• Commit to doing yoga at least once a week during the month.
• Try not to stress too much about oral surgery/dental work.

Tuesday Tidbits

I wanted to summarize my Feb, but that needs to wait because I don't have that info handy at the moment but wanted to share some of my recent thoughts

I'm afraid to step on the scale. I had been doing really well and was getting close to my desired "race weight" but then my eating habits basically took a nose dive for the worst.  Sigh.

I killed my old pedometer by accidentally putting it through the laundry. Got a new one and about 10 days later the led segments in the hundreds and thousands places stopped working.  What.The.Heck?!?!  So now I need yet another one.

Decision has been made regarding which half marathon I'm doing. Oral surgeon took the Albuquerque Half is off the table because of necessary recovery time.  So I will sign up for the Run for the Zoo half which is two weeks later.



I suck at yoga. Yes, I know it's not a competition sport but I seriously suck at it. I am not very flexible, or patient, or able to focus when I'm doing it.  I know it is supposed to help calm you down, but it ends up stressing me out.  Except for that deep relaxation bit at the end.  I can do that.  Please tell me I'm not the only one who struggles with yoga.