The Abbreviated Confessions of a Twenty-Something: Taking on 13.1 ...again.

With only 8 weeks left to train, I thought I would update you all on the progress of “The Adventures of Sam & Katie: Taking on 13.1”. We have been following Hal Higdon’s schedule for a Novice Half Marathon. For those of you who don’t know, this is Sam’s first half marathon and my 2nd. I ran the Princess Half Marathon in Disney in February with my lovely sister, Rosemary and 2 of our other friends. (We DOMINATED!) I ran it in 2:57:31. That’s right around 13 minute miles. In the running world, that’s on the slower to average pace, but decent considering this was my first race. My goal for that race was to finish and not die. This time around I’d really love, love, love to finish in under 2:45:00.

[That is the abbreviated version. We extended it by 6 weeks to include training up to a 5k, as well as having an 11 and 12 mile run at the end.]

Sam and I have been running 3 -4 days a week and cross training / lifting weights 2 days a week with 1 rest day (hello favorite-day-Friday!) We have been not really “calorie counting” per say, but we have been watching what we eat. We dine out less often, drink less beer than usual, and hardly ever eat fries with our meals. Usually, we’ll do sides like broccoli or steamed veggies. We really enjoy cooking at home together. Sharing that time in the kitchen and at the dinner table together is very important to us and we try to make room for it in our busy lives at least once a week. As a result, we both are getting more physically fit and are feeling much healthier! We have just made a few minor adjustments to our daily lives and eating habits that seem to be going a long way. Sam has also been known to pull the “will that help you run a half marathon???” phrase out on me… (just one cookie won’t hurt…right?? Right?!?!)

The first 8 weeks of our training was just getting into better shape. Sam ran his first 5k race on Thursday night! This was very exciting! (for me at least hehe!) I personally love 5k’s and this one was special to me for multiple reasons. It is an annual race hosted by Kaiser Permente. Every year, they host the 2nd largest race in all of Georgia. They have live bands and tons of tents set up for companies to “rent” for the evening. The venue? Turner field! How cool is that! So our company rented out a tent and we had about 40 participants from my office to go to the race. (sam and other significant others included) we had tons of food, drinks, and post race beers. (perfect recover drink. Duh) Unfortunately, this race is known as one of the hardest courses in GA. It’s a big loop that starts at the Olympic rings by Turner Field and ends at the rings. Somehow its almost all uphill…. Rude! That being said, I didn’t run as fast as I would have liked, but Sam did awesome! Woohoo! Race #1 CHECK!

The next 8 weeks are dedicated to putting out heads down and really focusing on getting in the longer mile runs on the weekends. Now we are really getting into the meat of the training and it’s really important that we focus and don’t give up. Its NOW that makes or breaks you. Now is the time that most people either give up or become champions. We have the dedication and determination to push through the hard workouts and the tough 7,8,9, 10 + mile runs and get the 13.1 medal! We can’t just talk about it; we have to BE about it!