I have some time before I leave to go run so I thought I would write about what lit a fire under me last December...the St. Jude half. Last summer I was running a lot and feeling really good about where I was going with running so I signed up for the half. For some reason I always forget how busy I am once school and soccer starts...plus having a toddler to chase around. So I maybe averaged 10-15 miles a week the whole fall. Which is fine for just running for a little bit of fitness but not for a half marathon.
I even tried to bail out, but mr. rt would not let me so off I went to trudge through the half. My original goal was to shoot for 9:30 miles and the worst case scenario was 2:15. Well, I stayed on pace until about mile 7 then it was just rough...and painful...and as I was running I was just mad. Mad at myself, mad at the race, just mad, mad, mad. I finished in 2:12 which is my worst time by a lot. That's what happens when you don't do any long runs!! I decided to use it as a training run and that next weekend I was out on the trails with my bro in law and we have not missed a weekend since.
The Germantown half is about 4 weeks away and I feel really good about where I am. I had planned on doing some smaller races in January and February, but instead my b-i-l and I have been doing a lot of back to back trail runs. Two weekends ago we did 12 on Saturday and 8 on Sunday.
Do it!!
I know what you mean. I have the Little Rock Half next weekend, but I have not done over 20 miles a week for the past 6 months (and way less for the year before that with injury/surgery). For me, a good half comes at a minimum of 35 miles a week. So, I now I have to tone it down and I keep telling myself to NO EXPECTATIONS just try to run smooth and have some fun. It is hard to run 13.1 miles out of shape, though!
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