Eat Teach Blog

I’m back! And boy was it amazing……

But before I share a recap of my week up at camp, I just want to share the last two days of running. I’m still kind of exhausted/sore/not quite adjusted to life back here. But I wanted to make sure I started back up with my training program. I’m going to be repeating week 1 (probably the remainder of this week and then next week) and I will be in line with the schedule counting down until the day of the race! =)

Yesterday was a little tougher than I expected. I was pretty active up at camp – I, along with my 3 co-advisors, were responsible for the high school kids and we spent a good chunk of the week doing service learning projects. There were very few moments where I was sitting down….we were always moving around (which ended up paying off in the weight department. Came home 4 pounds lighter, but more on that later…).

But yesterday, when I got myself back onto the treadmill, I felt as though I was starting from scratch. I ran a mile before I had to stop and start walking to regain my breath and strength to continue. I was able to complete two miles in 22:46. Hard to swallow…I used to be such a good runner and now I run a mile and want to call it quits.

Today, on the drive to the gym, I kept thinking about all the posts I’ve read and all of the advice I’ve gotten from runners. It’s my first half marathon. I shouldn’t be pushing myself to increase my speed and PR with each run I have. My goal is to start and finish. To do something I’ve never done before. If I want to challenge myself with PR’ing in my second half marathon, that’s fine. But right now, completing this is enough of a challenge.

Today on the schedule was a 3-mile run. To be honest, I don’t think I’ve run 3 miles straight for quite some time…..I decided to decrease my speed to between 5.8 and 6.2 on the treadmill today. And that made all the difference. I was able to run without stopping. Run without walking. Run without feeling pain. Run with ease. And run….while remembering that I’m still a runner. 

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What do you think about when you run? What’s the mantra you play over and over in your head to keep you going? 

So here’s the schedule for this week:

Monday: Cross-Train (something other than running. I’ll probably opt for the stairs or the elliptical later tonight)

Tuesday: Run/Walk 3 Miles

Wednesday: Run/Walk 3 Miles

Thursday: Run/Walk 2 Miles

Friday: Rest

Saturday: Run/Walk 4 Miles

Sunday: Run/Walk 2 Miles

Now here’s the problem. I leave for camp on Saturday (July 7th) and don’t come back til the following Sunday (July 15th) at night. So I won’t be able to do Sunday’s 2 miles or any of next week’s runs. Luckily, it’s a 10 week training plan and I have 15 weeks until the actual event. So even though I’ve started “officially training” this week, I will probably repeat Week 1 when I get back from camp. I’m not a running expert, but that makes sense….right?

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What are your thoughts on Week 1 Training? Does it seem feasible for a wannabe runner?  

Today was the first official day of half-marathon training. It was also the first official day of the Lose-A-Marathon challenge!

I had to run/walk three miles today so I excitedly threw on my new running shoes from A Snail’s Pace - a running store that analyzes the way you run and then chooses a shoe based on where you place most of your weight.

I was planning on jogging the whole thing, but had to stop about halfway through because my feet started to hurt. Not like a typical pain, but the bottoms of my feet were just in a lot of pain. I’m not really sure whether it’s because they’re new shoes and I have to break them in or maybe it’s just not enough support? I’m going to try out the same distance tomorrow with my old pair and see if it makes a difference.

So I walked for a bit and then continued running. So today, I completed 3 miles in 34 minutes. Not great, but whatevs. When I got home, I was eager to create a training log on Excel to start tracking my runs. I searched online to see if there was something already made. I came across this one from thinnmann.com:

I got ridiculously overwhelmed, so quickly closed that document and started creating my own. It’s similar…but a lot simpler. I don’t really think I need anything crazy like the above document. Just something that will allow me to see whether I’m making progress and my comments along the way.

Also got myself this nice, yummy salad from Wahoo’s. Chicken breast, banzai veggies, and avocado – yummy.

No dressing needed! =)

I also got Diet Pepsi – lots of it. But now my insides are hurting a lot. I’ve gotta quit it for real. No more DP this week for me. That’s a challenge – but I gotta do it. This isn’t a fun feeling….

Running Experts – any advice on the shoes? Should I tough it out and see how I feel in a week? Is this normal? 

I went for a 3 mile interval run this morning at William R. Mason Regional Park in Irvine. I actually wanted to go trail running and searched for some suggestions on Yelp. They gave me this. It wasn’t exactly what I had in mind, but it was a nice little discovery. The park was just 10 minutes from my house, but I had never been before. It’s a fairly large park with a huge lake, lots of trees and grass, picnic tables, a playground and a nice cement walkway (I’m assuming this is the “trail” Yelp is referring to). It’s also nice because there’s not many cars (because they charge for parking) so it really feels like you’re off in this distant place of peacefulness.

The only downside was that there were lots of ducks around the lake area. Which I initially thought was SUPER SUPER cool. And then as I got closer, I realized that I had to dodge a ton of duck sh*t on the run. Lovely.

After the run, I met up with Sister to grab lunch at Subway. Surprised? Well, turns out I’m much more of a Subway freak than I thought. I checked in on Yelp and suddenly became the Duchess of that particular Subway. Either people don’t check in as much as I do or I just go to Subway WAY too much. I think it’s the latter, but I’m too embarrassed to admit it.

After lunch, Sister and I went to Snail’s Pace to buy some new running shoes. Tomorrow is official starting day of my half-marathon training. There are so many training programs online – I’m not sure which one to follow. But seeing as how I’m kind of a noob at this long-distance stuff, I think I’m going to try this particular program:

HalfMarathonGuide2012-Beginner

Anyone have a better suggestion? Any advice at all for a first time half-marathon runner?