I've celebrated my first week back "in training" by registering for a 10k race that will fall in the middle of my training, as the mileage begins to creep closer to that magic 13.1. I think its nice to have shorter races on the schedule while working towards a much longer event. The longer event is great motivation for following the training plan, but it helps to have a couple of short races on the calendar to get you through as the weeks slog on and adding miles seems less exciting. Especially this time of year when just about everything seems tedious! So, March 18th will find me dressed in green (eek, I'll have to find some!) and lined up to run the ShamRock 'n' Roll 10k in Plymouth. These are the same folks who hosted the Wicked Halloween run that Oren and I completed. They did an impressive job for a new race company so I'm more than happy to do another one of their events. I'm extra happy to support them as Plymouth is much easier for me to get to than Ann Arbor or Detroit, two cities with other major St. Patrick's Day runs but much further away. In general SE Michigan is drenched in athletic events, but they always seem to require a drive. As not only a mom of young children but a nursing mom, I am On The Clock. As such, I'm always on the look out for events with the shortest possible drive.
I'm feeling good, midway through Week 1 of my half-marathon training plan. I've just completed two back to back three mile runs. That's six miles in just over 24 hours, a lot for this chicky! I'm patting myself on the back, especially since the treadmills had no working TV yesterday (NO!) and I still haven't recovered my tunes... it was some serious mental conditioning. My schedule calls for another three miler tomorrow, but as I never run even two days in a row, much less three, I am leaning towards doing only a couple of miles if any. I don't want to screw these legs up right off the bat! Maybe I'll go swim instead. Or walk with the dog. We shall see. I'm not stressing about it at all and will definitely tend towards not overdoing it this time around.
And perhaps as a show of support, I believe my littlest peanut has turned a corner on sleep! We've been doing some sleep training with her, albeit in a more gradual form then what we did with her older brother, but it is finally paying off (oh, thank you!). I just hope it sticks. Waking up after having spent the entire night in my bed makes me feel like I can climb mountains, swim upstream, tame wild children and (most importantly) run for miles and miles!
