I’m actually going to properly train (promise)

Once you run a marathon (heck, TWO) there is something so ‘quaint’ about 13.1 miles.  Marathon training is designed to dismiss half marathons.  Belittle then, even.  It’s for the right reasons, but can sometimes kill your mindset.  A colleague of mine is taking part in his first ever half this year and I had to do my best not to laugh in a snotty marathoner manner.  I had to recall in the deepest darkest depths of my mind the first half I ever finished.  I had to grasp on to how emotional it was for me crossing the line.  I was crying so hard that my husband and friends thought I had injured myself.

Here’s the thing, I have run a half marathon… almost.  When I trained for London I managed to keep my core strength after well enough intact to run Oxford almost the whole way.  I remember when crossing the finish line thinking, “Man, if I trained for this distance.  Really trained, I could run the whole thing.”

So that’s my goal: Run the whole way.

Never in all the 12 half marathons I have ever run have I run the entire time. 

I know, you’re like, “What?  You’ve never, ever, never ever run a half the entire way?  You kidding me?”

No, I am not kidding you.

I’ve had to take walking breaks, most of which are powered by two things:

1. Total lack of mental strength.
2. Not keeping to core strength training.

I know what I need to do to get past it.

1. Go out and ‘break’ myself mentally so that I stop stopping myself because I’m mentally chickening out.
2. Sign up to interim races, like when I first started running, to make sure that I keep to an appropriate plan.

Phase one: Remember this is for my family. (There are other things but trust me all I have to do is think of them and the shoes go on.)

Phase two: Interim race plan completed today!

• Blenheim 7k
• Oxford Town and Gown
• Helen & Douglas Rainbow Run
• Blenheim 10k

I’ll find more, but those are my ‘locals.’  I’ve also taken up pole fitness, which is WAY THE HECK HARDER THAN IT LOOKS. (I’ll post about it soon.)  What I can say in brief is this: The abs work I do in order to quietly sit on a pole makes me incapable of laughing for two or three days because it hurts so much.  And despite, I keep returning to the place.  I think the instructor holds some form of magical power.

So there is the plan.  I’ll keep you updated.  Because feeling obligated to my legion of 5 or so people who read my blog is yet another way to keep me training!