December 18, 2012

Half Marathon Training

I think I want to document my training for the half marathon that I’m running at the end of April.  Mostly because I think I’ll enjoy looking back and seeing how far I’ve come since these beginning days. (hopefully)  And maybe so others like me, who think there’s no way they could ever run ANYthing, to see that you CAN if you set your mind to it! :)  (hopefully)

How it began:

Now, I am not a “runner”.  I am not athletic.  I never played sports.  Wait, I did play soccer one year when I was about 8 years old.  If I remember correctly, I think I often ran the wrong direction, and sometimes stopped and picked flowers on the field.  After that season, my parents never suggested another athletic team for me to join.  Haha.  I consistently worked out for one semester in college.  Other than that, I’ve gone to the gym sporadically (I can’t NOT think of Clueless every time I use that word), and I’ve started and stopped a handful of workout routines, including The Shred and Couch to 5k.  I never made it past stage 1 of The Shred, and I think the furthest I ever went in C25K was week 5, and that’s a stretch.  My preferred method of exercise, if I do any, is group fitness classes at a gym.  And I love spin.  As a matter of fact, I had every intention of starting spin classes back up before this whole half marathon came up.

Let’s go back to August-ish of this year.  One of my co-workers suggested that a group of us run as a relay team in a marathon coming up at the end of November.  Each of us would have to run roughly 5 miles.  I thought it would be a fun challenge, and a great motivator for me to get off my butt and start exercising, so I said sure.  I had every intention of training.  But then…I don’t know, I never made it a priority.  I went to the gym sometimes and ran on the treadmill.  The longest run I did was 3 miles, and it was a run/walk.  A few of us ran the Race for the Cure in September.  That was my first 5k, first race really, and I just wanted to finish in less than 45 minutes.  I walked more than I wanted to, but I think we finished in about 40 minutes, and I was so happy with it.  Running across the finish line was exhilarating and I had renewed motivation to get with it for the relay.

And then 2.5 months passed, and relay day came and I hadn’t run much at all.  In fact, instead of preparing, I complained about it every day at work.  How much I hated running and I wished I hadn’t signed up.  How running is so stupid and what was I thinking.  Two of my co-workers ended up getting injured and couldn’t run, and I said I wished that I had gotten hurt so I didn’t have to go.  Clearly I an a whiner.  Anyway, when we went to pick up our race packets, the atmosphere was so motivating and fun, that I was actually excited to participate.  (I think you can see my rollercoaster love affair with running.  Although, I wouldn’t call it a LOVE affair really, more like a tolerate affair)  Marathon day was here, and I went out and did it.  I completed just under 5.5 miles in an hour and 12 minutes.  It was hard, and again, I walked (a lot) more than I wanted to, but running across the finish line was even more exhilarating than the first time.  It was awesome and I was proud of myself for following through, even if I hadn’t prepared like I should have.

After the marathon (like immediately after), one of my co-workers, who is much more excitable than I am :), started talking about how she wanted to run a half next year for her 40th birthday.  And with the endorphins pumping, I was all “I’M IN, LET’S DO IT!!!”  Haha.  At work the next day, I told someone about it and he was like “BUT YOU HATE RUNNING!!  YOU JUST COMPLAINED EVERY DAY ABOUT THE MARATHON!!”  Which was so true.  I had complained every day.  Because I didn’t have any confidence that I would be able to finish.  But I HAD finished.  Maybe not with the best time, but it was such an accomplishment for me.  And I wanted to get better.

And THEN, that same day, my fiend Jackie mentioned that she and her fiance were thinking about running the half marathon at the end of April.  This is a different half than the one my co-worker wants to do.  And just like that, I decided that I will do BOTH of them this year.  At some point along the way, I think I drank the kool aid and I’m now hooked.  But this time, I’m serious.  I joined a training group that started over the weekend, and we’ve had 2 runs so far.  I plan to recap those later, this is getting far too long.  Do I love running?  Nope.  Not yet, anyway…I think I might by the end of this though….

December 6, 2012

Checking In

Let’s have a little life update.

- Jake has made himself at home in our house.  A little too much.  He’s kind of on thin ice right now.  Truth be told, it’s pretty clear that he needs to be an only dog. He is insanely jealous of attention we give to Isabelle and Zoe.  To the point where he storms over and pushes the other dogs out of the way if we are petting or holding them.  Not cool, Jake.  Not cool.  He is also super rowdy, which is fine, but he runs over the other dogs all the time.  Isabelle doesn’t even get out of her cage on her own when we get home because she is scared of him :(  It makes me so sad.  But Isabelle and Zoe were our very first babies and they come first.  We aren’t planning on trying to find a home for him again, but if one presented itself, we would probably consider it.  Poor Jakey poo.  He is a sweet dog.  He just needs a TON of attention :)

- My house is a disaster right now.  I can NOT keep up with it.  So frustrating.  I don’t understand how this happens when we really do have a place for everything.  I constantly feel like I need to re-organize every space because that might help.  And I feel like ALL I do is dishes lately.  Although, I haven’t cooked dinner at all this week (I usually do every night) and there have been WAY less dishes to wash.  Maybe I’m on to something here….

- I am super proud to say that we are almost finished Christmas shopping. I just need to get stocking stuffers and we are all set!  This never happens so early in the month for us.

- Cooper is so wild right now.  And I really think it’s partially due to Jake.  He gets Cooper all riled up and then they go crazy.  Cooper literally bounces off the walls at night.  Literally.  He bounces from the wall to his bed, and repeat until we make him stop.  I have never seen a child with so much energy.  It wears me out just watching him!

- Coop’s language development is so so awesome right now.  The things he says both surprise us and crack us up!  When did he learn some of these things?  Last night he pointed to a Santa and said “Santa Clause. I sit on his lap. I get pesents”  We have never told him anything about Santa or sitting on his lap.  He has gone to see Santa every year, but that’s about the extent of us talking about him.  And he does know about presents, but usually relates them to birthdays, never Santa.  Must be school, although they focus more on the real meaning of Christmas, so who knows.  Oh, he can also “spell” his name: C-O-P-R.  Pretty close :)

- I am seriously counting down the days until I am off for Christmas.  12 work days and counting…

- How’s this for logical: I hate running.  Hate.  I signed up for a relay with my co-workers, which I’ve talked about it.  I had to run 5.5 miles.  I had every intention of training, but I didn’t.  Because I hate running.  I was dreading the race, and complained about it every day at work.  And then I ran it.  And it was so awesome and fun.  My team was super proud of our time.  But I haven’t run since.  And now I’m signing up to run 2 half-marathons in 2013.  HA!  I will be joining a training team this time so that I can actually DO it.  We’ll see how it goes.