There's No Turning Back...

On Saturday afternoon, I finally did it. I took the plunge. I signed up for the Rock n' Roll San Antonio Half Marathon on Nov. 15. Holy cow! I'd been playing around with the idea for a couple of weeks, and had pretty much made up my mind to do it, but I just hadn't made the commitment and signed up. Then, on Saturday afternoon I was messing around on Facebook and saw someone's status message, which noted that the Aramco Houston 1/2 sold out in ONE DAY. I knew that the RNRSA was prone to selling out (though maybe not in such epic times), so I just decided to go ahead and seal my place. I put my estimated time as 2:30, so hopefully I can make that happen. My family plans to come and cheer me on (we've spent years doing the same for my dad at marathons), so that should be fun. It claims to be "fast and flat," but San Antonio is kind of in the Hill Country, so we'll have to see about that. Luckily there are plenty of hills around here to train on, just in case.

I've decided to largely use the beginner's plan outlined in this month's Runner's World. It's a 12-week plan and consists of 2 or 3 easy-moderate runs during the week, with a long run on the weekend, and 2 days of crosstraining and one rest day. This is about what I do right now, so it shouldn't be too difficult to officially call it training. The long runs start with 6 miles, but I'm not quite there yet (the longest I've gone is 4), so I'm starting out with 4 and I should be at 6 by the time the 12 weeks starts in August.

I was at my parent's house this weekend because my mom treated me to a spa day on Friday(!). She got a manicure and I got a pedicure, then we both got massages. Not a bad way to spend a Friday afternoon. ;) Later, we pick up my brother (in all of his 15-year-old perpetual summer laziness), went to Chili's, then went for ice cream. That morning I'd gone for a nice two mile run through our neighborhood (where I was spotted by one of my dad's coworkers, who later mentioned that she'd seen me--I think he got a kick out of that), so I felt ok about my ice cream treat. I can never feel too bad about ice cream...

I meant to go out on Saturday morning (and on Sunday morning, for that matter), but my body wasn't feeling it, so I went to the gym yesterday when I got back in town and got on the elliptical for a while. This morning I guess I started training (ooo, doesn't that sound hardcore), and went for 2.5 miles. It felt pretty easy, and there were a few other people out. Pre-sunrise really is the only good time to do anything outside right now, IMO. It was kinda windy, but the wind did feel really good. I was planning on going to the gym tomorrow for cross-training, but since I'm taking Wednesday off (hair appointment--don't want the sweat screwing with my relaxer!), I think I'll do another morning run tomorrow.

Let the training begin!