Trying to Establish Balance

At this point in my training, finding time to run is more difficult than the actual miles. I'm a busy lady. I commute to work (40min one way) and I usually spend about 10 hours in my office a day. So thats nearly 12 hours daily devoted to my M-F job. I also have a horse that I am training to ride competitively. I aim to ride him 5 days a week but am pleased if I get in the saddle 4 times a week. This leaves little time for running. The office and the horse depend on me and running is one of the only things I do for which I am the only person holding me accountable Its easy for running to get thrown on the back burner when others are depending on me for everything else.

I am incredibly blessed that my boyfriend/roommate is one of the most supportive individuals on the planet. He makes my life so much easier for me. He is a teacher and we live only blocks from his school, so he gets to be home a lot more than I am. He could use that time to relax or be lazy, but he goes out of his way to do house work, laundry (mine too!) and usually had dinner ready for me when I come through the door (around 8pm on weekdays). I also have to find time to just be a girlfriend and a lover to him. I'm always trying to accomplish X amount of everything every week, that I forget that just spending time with him and strengthening our relationship is something that is well worth my time and energy as well.

So I am trying to stay motivated and dedicated to trying to fit in miles every week. I'm also trying to be creative and find ways to involve my boyfriend. He isn't a runner, but we often enjoy going for long walks with our dog. I took a day off from running this week and spent it with my boyfriend and our dog walking for almost 2 hours around the campus of his Alma Mater. It was a great way to talk about our week and enjoy each other's company without making me feel like a complete slacker for skipping a run. The on the afternoon when I planned to get 5 miles in (at my very favorite park about 15min from my house) I asked the bf to join me with our dog. The dog enjoys running with me, but she can't keep up in the summer. She's got short legs and a dark coat and in the summer months, even 3 miles seems to be too much for her. So my plan was for the bf to start of running with me and for him to stop and walk when he needed to and I'd keep going. When I turned back around at the end of the trail and headed back, I would meet up with him again and he'd run with me until he needed to walk, then I would reverse at the end and meet him and cool down walking back to the car. It sounds complicated but it wasn't! It worked really smoothly and didn't overface the bf or puppy dog but it allowed me to get in 5 miles!

I still haven't found that perfect balance: when do I ride, when do I eat, when do I run so that its not: dark when I run the road, I've had time to digest dinner, etc... but I think training for this marathon is as much a practice in finding a balance in my life as it is being able to run 13.1 miles... and I'll get there.

PS: I'm lusting after THESE and I lost one by $1 on ebay this afternoon... bahhh!

 Nike Sports Band

Week 2

Was horrible!
Thanks to giving blood on Tuesday, and visiting a friend (well worth it) then going with my BF to play trivia (after being slightly guilted) then going on a 4 day vacation... I ran exactly one day.... 3.1miles. Not very impressive for week two. But now I'm back in town and have a relatively lightly scheduled week.

I got off on a good foot today (my Monday) by hitting the road at 8:30. I ran sidewalk and side-of-the-road-grass until I felt that it was too dark to safely be on the shoulder of the road. I finished up the last 10 minutes of my 47minute run by looping my apartment complex. I felt pretty good even though I didn't give my dinner enough time to digest before setting out for my run. I think I did at least 4 miles and only had to walk about 5 minutes of my run. Its looking like this week may be much more successful than the last one was. Thank goodness I have months to prepare for this!

The best place to start is at the beginning.

Hello and welcome to training journal for my first 1/2 marathon.

I've been toying with the idea of this 1/2 for over a year now. The race is held in my home town and I've got T-Shirts from multiple years of the marathon. I feel like a poser when I go for jog wearing one and often thought about doing the 8K. When I mentioned this crazy notion to a friend of mine who ran competitively in high school and college she convinced me that it wasn't completely crazy and said she wanted to run it with me. All it took was a little peer pressure! I started running again last week (I'm really an on-again-off-again jogger) and logged 10 miles this week. My friend and I paid our registration fees this week and now we are really committed.

This is probably crazy, but theres no turning back now.