This just in: 13 miles is really far

I ran at the gym today for the first time since, oh, July. I must say, I was pretty pleased with myself for giving it a try. I only set out to do a mile, and I ran about half of that until deciding a break was probably a good idea. I walked another quarter of a mile before running the last quarter.

Keep in mind, when I say "run", I'm talking about what's probably referred to more as a jog. On the treadmill I usually aim for 5.0 mph as my pace, and 3.5 to 3.8 as my standard walking pace. But like I said, not out to be a hero or set any records, just trying to finish without dying. That applies to half marathons or one milers alike.

I must say, that one mile wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, not having ran in over 5 months. Once I got over that initial hump of actually starting the run, I was fine. That seems to be a problem of mine, in other aspects of my life besides just running. It's always that initial hump I have to get over before I realize the thing I set out to do really isn't so bad. (btw, I hate that word "hump", it makes me think of my dog. But I can't think of a better one, so I'll just go with it.) Once i got going, I focused on my breathing and posture, which were good distractors from the time, and the mile was over in under 15 minutes.

Now enter the pessimistic side of my brain. It took me nearly 15 minutes to do a mile casually, that's not (overly) huffing and puffing and sweating to death. Had this been the half marathon, I'd still have 12 more to do after that. Here's a little 4th grade math problem: 13 miles x 15 minutes = 195 minutes. Divided by 60 and that's 3 hours, 15 minutes to do the whole thing. That's a really long time to be running/walking. Even after that one mile, I was already running out of stuff to think about and focus on, other than being distracted by stomach cramps or tight leg muscles (both of which have been notorious deal breakers in past runs). So the thought of having to entertain myself for 3 hours more seemed a little daunting. That's longer than most movies! That's a flight from San Francisco to Seattle! Seems to me that part of this training is not only going to be focusing on the physical, but the mental as well.

By the way, my training book arrived in the mail the other day. I haven't opened it yet, other that to leaf through the training pages, but it looks pretty good. It's called "The Nonrunner's Marathon Guide for Women: Get Off Your Butt and On With Your Training".

I got in on Amazon for about 10 bucks. Not too shabby.

Until next time!

Here I go (for reals this time)

Darn that stupid show "The Biggest Loser" for making me feel like I can accomplish any physical activity if I just set my mind to it. Because of that, I'm signing up to participate in a half-marathon on June 5, 2010.

Notice my use of the word "participate", not run or walk. I'm not planning on being a hero by any means, my only goals for the race are:

1) to actually show up on race day
and
2)finish all 13.1 miles (preferably before the sun goes down)

I'm still in the "psych myself up and believe I can really do this" phase. I bought a training book through Amazon that I plan on reading over the holidays, and I'm researching a few different training plans through various online running sites (when I finally find a good one, I'll post it on here, but for now, you can check my links). My plan is to start training on Monday, January 3, which is almost 5 months to the day before the race. Like I said before, not trying to be a hero. It's going to take me all 5 months to prepare, that much I'm certain about.

So...who else is in?

Here I Go...

I find all the time in the world to set up my training blog, but then when it comes time to post I suddenly have to go do something else.

Little bit of foreshadowing?