To be clear, the temperature these days hovers around the freezing mark and I'm ok with it. I've run in those temperatures before. Once you are dressed for it, it's fine and you warm up quite quickly! The portion I dislike is the snow and ice. See, I'm clumsy at the best of times - walking bare feet. So running on snow and ice is just asking for trouble. I slip and slide when I'm wearing winter boots with grips!
I'm fortunate enough to have an indoor track close by where Mike and I have been visiting over the past week and a half. Our current schedule is 3 times a week for 2 runs during the week and a long run on the weekend.
This is also great news because I've decided to start training for my first half marathon. Scary, I know. I'm convinced the rational side of my brain is blissfully unaware of what's coming over the next year or so.
To provide some backstory, I joked around with myself mainly, that some day I would do a half marathon. You know, that magical day far off into the future that never actually arrives. I kept up my running schedule, started gaining strength and incremental PRs, and the half-marathon worm slowly made it into my head. Then, I'd push it away, because really... 21k, are you crazy?
Then, earlier this year RunDisney announced the Star Wars Darkside races for 2016 to be held at Disney World. My dear husband, the Star Wars fan, got that look in his eye. Disneyland holds the Star Wars Light side races, but seriously who wants to run for the Light side? We jokingly talked about it, but never came to an agreement.
Fast forward to November. With the impending move to the indoor track looming, I had to devise a training schedule. Unfortunately the track does not have the best GPS access, that metal roof probably has something to do with it, so my RunKeeper runs are always a little off. I now rely on timed runs and intervals through RunKeeper and a separate log of the total time I've spent. It hearkens back to pre-phone days of running, but it works.
In devising a plan, I went full bore and created one for the half marathon. My goal is to complete a half by next Autumn. My rationale is this: I need to show myself that I can do it. Once I've done it, then I'll feel much better about completing the Star Wars half. Back when the WDW marathon weekend loomed, even though I was just running the 5 and 10ks, I had huge anxiety. I'd never done a 10k before, was it even possible for me to do it?
This time, I'll be more prepared.
In terms of races for next year, I have one 5k planned. At this time of the year, it's a little early for the Spring and Summer race information to be posted. I'll be in a different and better situation heading into Spring 2016 compared to Spring 2015 and I hope to see some gains - both in time and overall feeling/strength.
I leave you with some pictures from this year's races.
Still cannot believe I got to run on a runway!
