The Adventure of Week 1 Half Marathon Training & the Girl in the Red Bug

I am using the Hal Higdon 1/2 Marathon Training app. It is a 12 week program geared towards novices. I definitely consider myself a novice, since the furtherest I have ever run is four miles. I am thankful that throughout the summer, that I tried to maintain some semblance of a running program, even if it was on the treadmill! At least it won't be like completely starting over (well, hopefully it won't be).

One of the things I like most about this app, is that you can track how you feel during the training session, what the weather conditions were, and what the terrain was for the run. It also provides handy tips, which I love.

Throughout my blogging, I want to share with you the ups, the downs, the good, the bad and the ugly of my training. So, here we go!

Day 1 - a rest day. The app has Monday as a rest day, this will be valuable as the program rollout, since Sundays will be the days slated for the long runs. I am already experiencing a little anxiety about the long runs.  But, as far as today was concerned, I felt like a bit of a slug for not getting in some type of exercise! Thought for the day, "It is far better to be exhausted from success then to be rested from failure." Mary K. Ash, founder of Mary K. Cosmetics, Inc.

Day 2- was scheduled to run three miles, but only went 2.13 miles. I will say it was slightly rough.  My pace was off, and the air felt muggy. Am praying that I can get back into the swing of things.

Day 3 - a cross training day. I lifted weights, did push-ups, sit ups and the dreaded plank. It was a decent workout that I kind of made up on the fly.

Day 4 - was scheduled to run three miles, but only got in 2.04 miles. It was a better run than Tuesday night. My pace felt better, not perfect, but better.

Day 5 - Rest Day...I was thankful for the rest, I was tired from my week.

Day 6 - Did a Pilates workout from a series I have been recording. Wow! My core is weak and my hips are so tight. It is very obvious to me, that I need to continue these type of workouts to strengthen my core and to loosen my hip muscles. I can only imagine this will make my running easier.

Tomorrow is my scheduled 4-mile run. I really want to do well with the run. I am hoping that my doing it earlier in the day, will help. We'll see.

Day 7 - Today I completed my 4-mile run. I really wanted to lay in bed, but was going through Facebook and saw that a friend of mine had gotten up and completed her workout, so it inspired me to do the same.

Overall, the run went well. I'm still not back to running the full mileage consecutively, but I am seeing improvement from my earlier runs this week, and that propels me to keep going! I am looking forward to this coming weeks training. Happy running!