Half-marathon training: Week 1

I have officially kicked off my training in earnest for the Disney Princess Half-marathon in February 2013.  I am following the run-walk method by Jeff Galloway. Although I am two weeks behind from his training program, it is not impossible to catch up with the pace.  I feel that I am not really a beginning runner anymore but I don't think I am a strong enough runner yet to set a time goal so I have combined the beginner/time goal programs.  At this point, my goal is simply to finish the race by the recommended time of 3:30!  Funny thing is, they ask you what your estimated time to finish would be when you sign up.  You cannot put a time  longer than 3:30 so I put 3:29!!!  This is my magic number!

Rundown of Week 1:  

• Tuesday :  Warm up: 10 minutes; Run: 30 minutes; Pace: 15 min/mi; Miles:  2.1
• Thursday:  Warm up: 10 minutes; Run: 30 minutes; Pace: 17 min/mi,; Miles:  1.94
• Distractions:  caught up with neighbors running, stopped and talked so pace is longer
• The pace doesn't seem to add up with how long and how far I ran, but I got these numbers from my ipods summary after I ran.  
• Saturday:  Warm up:  10 minutes:  Run 1:10 minutes; Pace 17 min/mi; Miles:  4.1
• Breakfast:  Post wheat cereal with non fat milk
• Location:  along Lake Washington Rd.
• Weather:  perfect; cool breeze from the north, temperature at 67 degrees!
• Injuries:  none
• Physical discomfort:  left pinky toes rubbing against 4th toe at around mile 3.  Remedy:  put vaseline between toes in the next long run.
• After run intervention:  ate a piece of cookie while icing both knees for 10 minutes.
• Advice for others:  do not go to a dinner/dance in the evening after a long run!  While only the legs were a bit tired in the morning, adding the hips and hands to dance the night away a few hours later was utter torture.  At least, I got a full body work out!

T minus 123 days!

This is the Jeff Galloway timer that I use and is set to beep every 30 seconds of walk/run interval.  

Half marathon, half crazy!

Well, I have done the unthinkable and registered for the 2013 Disney's Princess Half Marathon to be held on February 24, 2013!  Me, with only a handful of 5Ks (3.1 miles) under my belt is daring to run 13.1 miles! That's the distance from my house to the Melbourne Square Mall and back! So of course, you'd ask - have I lost my mind?  Well, hear me out on this.  As serendipity would have it, last week I read that one of my favorite financial consultants, Jean Chatzky, has run a handful of half marathons and lived to tell about it.  She is probably a real runner than I am, but I thought, if she can do it, so can I.  Then while flipping through channels the other day, I flipped on the Sex and The City movie just as "Carrie" and "Charlotte" were discussing why "Charlotte" had not run since she got pregnant.   Her fear of losing the pregnancy stopped her from running and eventually got back to it and still carried her baby to term.  Even fictional characters are running, then why can't I.  

But most of all, I found out that little Clare, the 2 year old daughter of one of my co-teachers, just had her first dose of chemotherapy yesterday. She is fighting the biggest battle of all, leukemia.  I don't know the pain that she is going through and I can only imagine the pain that her parents are going through.  The beneficiary of the run is the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.  I am going to endure the pain of running for over 2 hours to help raise awareness of this disease and fund research for a cure.

So am I crazy?  Of course I am, because I'm not Jean Chatzky or "Charlotte".  I'm Joy who, while running 5Ks, is cursing my way through the course thinking why did I ever sign up for this?  What could possibly possess me to embark on such a seemingly insurmountable goal?   Well, maybe I just want to say in the end that I did it - check it off the proverbial bucket list.  Simple as that.  There is plenty of time to train. Honestly, I am truly terrified at the thought of running for 13.1 miles but I know I can do it and expect to live to tell about it!  I hope you follow me as I share my successes and failures through every run as I prepare for that big day.  

Let the 127-day countdown till the half marathon begin!

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