7/31, 3 miles

I'm finishing the month with an easy 3 miles on the treadmill. I am well rested and ate more protein in the last few days making this morning's run much easier to finish. I still have a head cold, but it doesn't seem to be going anywhere so I put up with it.

Today:

• 3 mile run
• .4 mile walk to finish out my time

Weekly total: 10 miles

Sleep

The problem with running is that it greatly interferes with my sleep. I know it is my own doing, but I still don't have to like it.

I get up before the kids to get my running in. This means I'm up at 4:30 to run four or five days a week. This is mighty early even though I go to bed early every night. Once a week I go to bed even earlier so I can catch up a little on my lost sleep. Last night was one of those nights and I slept for 10.5 hours and loved it! I feel much better today.

No running for me today because it is a rest day. I will be tooling around in the pool with the kids this afternoon so I'll get a little exercise in, but the fun kind. Tooling around in the pool consists of a child on each side of me trying to swim while holding onto my hand for dear life. My arms get quite a work out as I walk back and forth in the 4' deep pool with the kids.

7/29, 3 miles

Let me put this out there: I hate hot and humid weather. While the weather shouldn't affect me in the basement where the treadmill is, it does. We have a dehumidifier running almost constantly all summer and it gets warm and there is still too much humidity in the air. It starts getting warm through July and it will stay until Oct. Since I run four days a week in the basement this will cause a few issues for me in the upcoming months.

Today I ran 3 miles. It seemed to take forever, but I know it took normal time (thank you treadmill for keeping track of everything for me). I kept the treadmill at a 1% incline as I usually do.

This morning:

• 3 miles (water at 1 and 2 mile breaks, slowed the pace at 2.5 miles)
• walk to cool

Weekly total: 7 miles

7/28, 4 miles

I haven’t been feeling well the last couple days and I have been eating very little so my run was a little more difficult than usual. I’m looking forward to having my stomach be back to 100% so I have the energy to run more again.

This morning I made it out of bed in time to get in a run. My schedule called for running a fartlek yesterday, but since I skipped yesterday because of my stomach I did it today. The challenge is the fartleks that I have been doing have been working (this is a good thing) and now they no longer have the same efficacy. I am trying to figure out a new ‘fast’ speed to run when I am doing speed work. I’ll work on it more in the coming weeks playing with the speeds of both the speed/recovery parts of the run.

This morning:

• 1 mile warm up
• 2 miles of fartleks (.25 mi @ 6.2mph, .25 mi @ 5mph)
• 1 mile cool
• Walk to finish out my 50 min

Weekly total:
4 miles running

Running for Me

I am starting this blog as a way to journal my running as I train for my first half-marathon. I have been running on an off for over a decade. Since having kids running has become a more integral part of my life, it is me time. I have been running just over 20 miles a week up to this point.

I started training last week, so I am already behind. I looked at a lot of training plans and went with a beginner plan from Cool Running; it fits my running schedule. Last week was nothing out of the ordinary with five days of running. Unfortunately, I didn’t feel well yesterday or today so I skipped this morning’s fartlek.