Half marathon countdown

I can't believe in less than two days I will be running my first half marathon! I am so excited! This training has kept me busy. I love having a training plan to follow but I am ready to be a bit less intense with it. I am thinking that after the half, I will find a training plan to work on speed.

I wanted to write a post about my last long run. I was really nervous about it because of the week that I let things go due to funeral happenings. I had missed a 10k during the funeral weekend and was scheduled to run 11 miles the weekend of my bestie's birthday. I knew that I would not have time to run 11 miles, shower, drive across the state, and help set up the party. So that morning I ran a 10k and figured I would save the long running for the next weekend.

I woke up Saturday morning ready to run. I had been debating all week in my head about weather I would run 11 or 12 miles (I missed the 11 mile run and 12 miles was on the schedule). I had decided that I would meet in the middle and just run 11.5 miles. I felt okay with that and started my run. Once I got going though, I decided that I would run until mile 6 and just turn back there, that way I would have the choice to keep running for 12 or stop running at 11.5 and walk home. As I was running the second half, I knew in my head that I would run the whole 12 (who wants to lamely walk a half mile home after running 11.5 miles anyway?). I knew that if I didn't run 12 miles I would be disappointed in myself and extra anxious about the half. I had actually purposely picked this training schedule because I wanted have have 12 miles under my shoes going into the half. Most beginner training schedules that I saw had the longest run at 10 miles. I felt like I would feel under prepared and wanted to know going into the race that I am capable of running 12 miles so adding 1.1 miles would be doable. I was so proud of myself for sticking out the 12 miles.

While running those 12 miles I realized that running and weight loss are so similar to me. They are both such mental struggles. Losing weight can be so hard when you focus on how much weight you have to lose. Every once in awhile I realize that although I have already lost about 40 pounds, I still have about 20 pounds to go and possibly more. I start to stress out that I may never get there and feel helpless. However, if I change my thinking into fewer pounds to the next "milestone" it is easier. Right now I have about 5 pounds to lose until I am at my absolute lowest adult weight. Once I am there, it is less than 10 pounds to a healthy BMI. When I think in smaller weight loses, it seems so manageable.

The same can be said of running. I have to play mental games with myself right from the beginning. As I headed out for my 12 mile run I thought about when I would stop for water and Shot blocks. I decided I could stop at mile 4, mile 7, and mile 10 for water and 2 shot blocks. It made the run completely doable. I ran for 4 miles and then walked for a minute with I drank and ate, then I told myself to just run 3 more miles, then 3 more miles. I never once let myself think 'oh no, I have run 4 miles and STILL have 8 to go.' That would have made the run feel torturous to me.

I liked thinking about running and weight loss together like that. They definitely work together for me and perhaps the mental games in one area will help me in another. I will consider it cross training. :)