Half Marathon Training

So yesterday I nearly fell over when I admitted that I wanted to run a half marathon and more expressly, wanting to run the Disney's Princess Half Marathon in Orlando in February.  By the time this half marathon rolls around I will have been running for 1 year and 4 months.  That is important for me to remember because, to be honest, I'm kinda freaking out about this!  Um, yeah...it's kind of a big deal! 

It is a big deal and in some regards, it isn't.  I say that because as a runner (oh lord, did I just refer to myself as a runner?) it helps to have goals to strive for.  Whether it be faster times, longer distances, conquering tougher terrain, it is a physical and mental challenge that you go through.  Having a solid base of experience and training is paramount to helping you be more confident in facing a new and seemingly unsurmountable challenge.  See how I'm making this into something huge!! Totally psyching myself out, no doubt.  However having months of running under my belt should be a psychological reinforcement to my confidence to run this race...and own it. 

What I need is a plan of attack.  I need a training schedule that is good for beginners to the half marathon distance and doesn't ramp up too quickly by throwing out 1-2 mile increases each week.  If I start my training now, which I would like to do, I have 7 months until the race.  I think that is a fair amount of time to properly train for a longer distance race, don't you? 

I have friends who have used different training aides, programs, schedules, whathaveyou and they all have something critical to say about the training overall.  Granted no plan is foolproof or is agreeable to all persons that use it, but I would like to find something that can get me up to the mileage I need without pushing me so hard I become prone to injury.  Yeah, you're old, you have to worry about injuries and recovery time; Old lady.

So now I need some help from you all, is there a half marathon training guide or schedule that you like or have used and swear by?  This is when I need help and my research only gets me so far.  Having real life admissions from people who have been through it is much more useful to me then guessing if something is good or not.  Your help is greatly appreciated and I'm ready to start working on it now. 

Anybody else out there training already or starting on training for a half marathon?  Your tips and suggestions are highly appreciated.  Running is always a bit more fun when it's done with others.  Let's train together!  Check in with me and tell me how much booty you are kicking or if you need some uplifting momentum to help you through those days where you aren't so motivated.

Why you should volunteer at races

I had a really enlightening experience last weekend that I wanted to share.  It took me a week or so to think about how I wanted to blog about it without sounding like I'm up on a soapbox.  Please someone, kick it out from under me!  However I wanted to talk about my first experience volunteering at a race; the Seattle Rock n' Roll Marathon.


My friend Danielle was running her first ever half marathon and has been training for the past 4-5 months for this feat.  I was (and still am) in complete awe of her progress from being a non-runner to running a half marathon.  I wanted to be there when she crossed the start and crossed the finish line to support her and watch the culmination of all her hard work, but what was I to do for the next how-ever-many-hours inbetween?  So, I decided to sign up to be a volunteer at the race!  I figured since I would be there to support my friend who is there racing, why not support the other racers too?


I signed up with the RnR Series volunteer group and I took the shift that they have the most trouble filling, the morning!  So an early start for me as the call time for the volunteers was 4am!  GAH!  It was POURING rain and I was seriously starting to doubt my sanity in making this decision.  I went anyway, armed with a hat, layers of clothing and my waterproof jacket.  I get there (they provided free parking) and was given a poncho, my volunteer shirt, a shoulder bag (to put your stuff in since there was no bag check for volunteers) and some morning snacks. 

Pretty snazzy looking, huh?


I was lucky and got into the position I was hoping to: the start line corrals.



Pretty place to start, right?  I got to my corral and got set up.  We had to rope off the corrals and have the trash and recycle bags available, along with a bag full of packets of salt.  Luckily, by this time the rain had lifted and the sun was making its way through the clouds, it was perfect running weather here in the PNW!  Cloudy, cool and dry (well not on the road, but at least you are!).

In my corral was an entire running group that had over a hundred people racing together, and their cause was very touching.  Wear blue: run to remember.

It was a group that runs in memory of fallen soldiers, some of which were family, friends or even no relation at all, just because.  The group was amazing.  They had fantastic energy and were so sincerely nice.  They gathered for a prayer before the race began and called off the names of those they wanted to remember.  The group leader was carrying a flag the entire time and ran with it during the race!

The corrals were filling up and the energy was palpable.  I'd never been to a race like this before.  Not a marathon series, nor one of this magnatude.  Rock n' Roll has this down to a science and they have a great set up!


The race had finally begun and Corral 17 was moving to the start line.  One of the amazing things I've ever seen at a race I experienced here (and I'm so pissed I didn't get a picture of it) was the amount of clothing that is shed before the race!  It's chilly in Seattle and you want to keep warm while you're standing around for an hour+ waiting for your race to start.  So apparently, the racers will drop their clothing along the railing of the start line, if they don't have friends that will take it for them, and everything that is left is donated to the homeless.  That's awesome and such a crazy sight to see!!

Another crazy sight?  This guy.  You're not seeing things, yes, he is juggling.  You know what?  He juggled those 5 balls the entire. half. marathon.  They called him the "joggler" because he runs and juggles at the same time.  I guess if you really want to amp up your training, this is a WHOLE other level, my friends!

We are finally at the start and I was so excited, I wanted to jump in and run!  It was such an amazing feeling.  I cheered as my corral left and I headed down to the other corrals to help out.  I found my friend Danielle and cheered her on as her corral made their way to and over the start line.  She was nervous but grinning from ear to ear!  After that I helped break down the start line and the booths that surrounded that area.  Once that was done, I headed back to the volunteer table with others to be re-assigned, I was riding the good energy from being in the corrals.


Now I was already done with the shift I signed up for, but I decided to stay and help a while to wait longer for Danielle to finish.  I got assigned to the finish chute handing out "fuel" to the finishing runners.  The volunteer I was hanging out with Mitch, and I were assigned to the banana tables.  GO TEAM BANANA!!!  We had to break down the bunches into singles and lay them out on tables for the runners to grab as they went by.  We already had a ton laid out, but I also saw that tons of people were passing by and not getting their bananas.  So I grabbed armfuls of bananas and held them out to the dazed runners in the middle of the chute that were walking past me.  Some just walked past and declined, though many zeroed in on the banana like it was a million dollars being waved in their face.  It was so fun to be able to hand these simple bananas to these fantastic people after a grueling race. 


What was the most awesome and heartwarming part of this and my day as a whole, was the amount of "thank you"s I got from the racers.  Many thanked me for the banana and others thanked me for volunteering.  Mostly, the thanks came in their eyes and body motions when I assisted them in some way.  That was the most rewarding of the whole day and I left the race later that day floating on a cloud. 


My friend finished the race in 3 hours and 11 minutes...an incredible time!  She did such a fantastic job and I'm SO proud of her.  What this race did for me, and why I titled the post as such, is that you should experience this for yourself.  All of us that race and thank (or not thank) the people that volunteer to make the race happen and work as well as it does, owe it to ourselves to be a part of that wheel at some point.  You are no less important to the cause by volunteering instead of running.  I know I got the most amazing amount of satisfaction by being their for my fellow runners in small ways that made a huge difference in their experience.


I encourage you all to volunteer at a race, big or small it doesn't matter, just be involved.  Then reap the rewards of giving back to the community you love so much and have an even deeper appreciation of the process we involve ourselves in everytime we cross that start line.

Momentum Monday: Reset Button

Hello Monday and hello short week!  Holidays are nice in that we have a shorter work week and my office typically lets us out a couple of hours early the day before if it falls during the week (not on a Monday).  So we all get to cut out early and start the festivities sooner!  YAY!


Though, just because it is a holiday doesn't mean it's a holiday from exercise.  I'm trying to re-wire that part of my psyche.  Just because it is a holiday/"day off" from work, doesn't mean it's a day off from life.  Le sigh  So on Wednesday I will still be waking up fairly early and doing my long run, my hubby even said he would run with me...though I'll believe it when I see it. ;)


Today is Momentum Monday and time for me to push my reset button.  I have fallen off the wagon and I'm struggling to catch up to get back on.  I haven't been running much at all (maybe once a week, the shame!!!  I KNOW!!) and I haven't been packing my lunches for work so I've been buying from my work cafeteria, not terrible but not the healthiest stuff I should be eating.  All of this really hit me this weekend when my clothes started to fit me differently and looking at my body in the mirror, I can tell that my body composition has changed.  I went to the doctor's last week for my yearly and my weight was about the same.  Though looking in the mirror, it appears that my muscle has gone down and been replaced with fat.  Ugh...all that work I did has been undone, crap.


So today I am hitting my reset button.  Instead of thinking about what I've done (and subsequently undone with my recent laziness lack of momentum), I am going to refocus on making my meals for the day the night before and getting my run and/or exercise in every. day.  Did you get that last one?  I'm going to make it my challenge in July to run at least 4-5 days a week and to do the 300 Core and Ab challenge.

I found it on Pinterest (that website is a time eater!!!) and tried the moves out.  HOLY LORD!!  They are crazy hard and you are SORE not just the next day, but almost immediately.


Why am I doing this?  I ask myself that same question!!  Because my core is no where near where I want it to be and to be an efficient runner, you should have a stable core.  Not just have a rock hard six pack, that's not what I'm looking for.  I'm wanting a good stable core so that I don't get so exhausted during my runs and lose my form so quickly. 


This also means I'm going to have to be accountable now that I've posted this.  Oh boy...here we go.  And it also means I will have to take before and after pictures too.  What?!?  Nobody said anything about taking pictures!  If I'm going to make it a true challenge and a goal, I have to be accountable and show you what I have and haven't done.  Though the pictures won't be posted until after, so you'll have to wait a month for those.  ;)


The momentum mantra for this week is:

Question: I've hit my reset button this week, are there any changes you'd like to make?  Have you hit your reset button before?

New theme to begin the week: Momentum Monday!

It's Monday and the beginning of another work week.  How was your weekend?  Mine was good, super busy and the weekend flew by as per normal, but more on that later.

So last week on Monday I was perusing blogs and imagine my embarrassment when I realized that FitFluential already has a "Motivation Monday".  Now I know that there are lots of buzz words that are used on blogs, but I never want to feel like I'm copying another blog or "riding their coat tails".  I want to do things for myself and if they work they work, and if they don't then they don't, and I go back to the drawing board.

So in light of that, I have decided to change my Monday theme, it's still the same mindset, just a different term for it.  Going forward, Mondays will now be called Momentum Mondays.

Momentum?  Why momentum?  Well I think the answer lies in the definition of the word.  Momentum (noun): the product of a body's mass and its velocity; the impetus of a body resulting from its motion; driving power or strength.

We all come into our Mondays still "bliss drunk" from our weekends and, at least for me, feel like I need something to help push me to get back into my week routine.  Wait, shouldn't I be doing the same thing during the weekend as I do during the week? Why am I taking a vacation from my routine every weekend?  Well I'm not perfect and I fall off my usual sleep schedule, stay up later and indulge in some things I wouldn't do so during the week.  So that is why I think momentum is appropriate for my Mondays now, just so that I can get back into motion, increasing my strength physically and fueling my emotional and mental power. 

So the momentum mantra for today and the week ahead is:

This is my mantra for this coming week.  I have fallen off the running wagon...HARD!  I let far too many things get in my way and keep me from running at all this week and I feel like a failure.  I've worked to keep consistent and to log runs and gradually increase my miles, but for some reason I just can't. get. my. ass. in. gear!  I feel like a faux runner having taken this break, like I'm a poser, and I hate that feeling with every fiber of my being.  I want to run, I need to run, I feel better when I run, why am I not running?  Where is my momentum? 

I guess Newton's Law of Motion really is true here, if an object (or body) is at rest, it continues in a state of rest.  However if an object (or body) is moving, it continues to move without turning or changing its speed and tends to move along a straight line path indefinitely.

My momentum goal this week is to get back into motion and to continue on my path for indefinite motion, and to no longer accept a continued state of rest. 

What is your momentum goal this week?  It can be simple like mine, to just get out and run, or it could be working on achieving a long time goal of yours.