Half Marathon #2

Okay so after my first half marathon, I said, I proclaimed, I SCREAMED that I would never ever ever EVER do a half marathon again, much less EVER run again. And trust me, I was dead serious about that.

I expected my first half to have been an unbelievable, awe-inspiring, fabulous experience. I expected this because my 10 week training leading up to the half was nothing short of perfect and great. I expected this because it seems that all the stories I read about people running their first half were all so fabulous, so inspiring, so inspirational, but I guess this is all proof that each persons experience is theirs and it's all different. To some, their first half may have been all those things. To me? They were everything BUT those things. The heat, the time it took me, the injury I had, the knife stabbing stomach ache I had afterward, the 8 hours in the car hours after with painful cramped up legs to drive back to Nebraska....yeah, not so great. It wasn't horrible, don't get me wrong. There were plenty of positive great experiences, too. Fun roadtrip with the husband, lots of funny "experiences" in Chicago learning how to ride the L train and getting around downtown, meeting my awesome "pen-pal" for the first time and running it together, and seeing my proudest and best cheerleader, my husband at the finish line with tears in his eyes....all GREAT positive experiences. The running part...not so great.

I took weeks off of running and when I did resume running it was nothing serious. A few miles here, a few there. As much as I hate running when I'm doing it (not always, but those first few miles are always hard for me), I miss it so much when I'm NOT doing it. When I'm running I think of everything BUT running, when I'm not running I CANNOT stop thinking about it. Sickness? Probably.

I can't remember when I decided, but I figured I give another half a shot. I signed up for the Lincoln Half on May 1st. Not only did I sign myself up, but hellooooo....misery LOVES company so I decided to sign my NON RUNNING husband up as well. Aren't I nice?! Not only does husband not run, he hates it, has no desire for it, to learn, or to do anything resembling running. But he was super inspired in Chicago and said that if some of those people who finished could do it, he certainly good. Yay for inspiration and yay for doing this TOGETHER. That alone makes me happy!

We just started our 10 week training last week and so far so good. I meshed together two different training plans that I liked (Hal Higdon's and Marathon Rookie) and came up with something that works for us. I ran 3.5 on Monday, cross trained for 30 mins on Tuesday (stair climber), ran 3.5 on Wednesday, rest day on Thursday, cross trained on Friday (1 hour walk), ran 5 miles on Saturday and Sunday did some light stretching for a total of 12 miles + 1.5 hours of cross training. This week it will basically be the same.

So, in addition to training, I've been trying to incorporate more raw fruits and veggies, whole grains, into my diet. It's not too hard for me because I love fruits and veggies and eat pretty healthy anyway (I'm a vegetarian, 20 years!), but I also love cheese and sugar!!!
Today for lunch I had a chik burger (vegetarian) with romaine lettuce instead of a bun, a side of lightly steamed carrots and a huge bowl of fruit salad (bananas, kiwi, and oranges) with a tiny bit of granola mixed in. Good stuff.


So, here we go again.
Round 2, here we come!