Half Marathon Training Update

Last night, it was downpouring. I really had ZERO desire to run in the rain and really hoped it would be gone by this morning. Thank goodness it was. :) Yes, I know I need to run in all the elements, but I just didn't have the desire today!

El and I met at 6am in front of my house (so convenient having your running partner live 3 doors down) and walked down to the Lake. It was a cool morning, but perfect Fall running conditions.

This was a different sort of run. We got into a good chat about life and I didn't really listen to my music or the Runkeeper updates at all. I really got into to the rhythm of the conversation and let the counting slip away for once.

We know the trail well since we run it often, but that made the run even better. We didn’t have to worry about veering off the course or going too far North – we had that part down. We could really just let our feet hit the pavement, while we enjoyed the morning.

I didn't really tune back into the mileage count until we neared our original starting point. We both got our Runkeepers out, figured out who had the shorter distance (since we are somehow always off each other by .03-.06 mi) and kept running until both of us passed the 7 mile mark.

We kicked butt (especially since El has never run that distance before)!! Last week we ran 6.5 miles in 1:06.20 (10:12 min/mil) and today we finished 7 miles in 1:10.00 (9:53 min/mil). How awesome are we! :) We ran under, I repeat under, a 10:00 min/mile. Saaayyy wwhhaaa??

It felt so great to just get up this morning and knock out a 7 mile run without blinking an eye. If you told me back in 2005 that I would ever write that, I would’ve had you sent to a mental hospital … ASAP.

Now, I have about 3 months before my Half Marathon, which is plenty of time to train. So I think for now, I will be making Friday morning my long run day and just add 0.5 mile each week. Just see how that goes for awhile and take it from there. Most official Half Marathon training schedules have you start 12 weeks before the run. So, at any time, I can pick that back up.

But for now, I feel good. I am ready to tackle some Fall/Winter running!