June?

Holy crap it's the middle of June.  How in the heck did that happen? I have, what, 3 weeks until the Foot Traffic Flat Half Marathon? Three weeks?  Yikes.

Needless to say I'm not feeling very confident and/or prepared for the half.  I know I'll make it through, if only on sheer determination and stubbornness. But it won't be pretty, and it probably won't be very fast.  But who are we kidding anyway? I'm never very pretty or fast when I run.

This past month has been a slog.  While physically running has felt fine, and I'm feeling strong...the mental aspect has just been daunting.  I don't know what the problem is, but every day has been a battle to get out there and run.  There it is.  Half the challenge is a mental challenge, right?  It was the same with swimming, but I had a coach standing above me on deck telling me to swim.  I've only got me and my little workout plan telling me to run. I need a coach. 

Or not! I have some extra incentive to keep running. YAY! I got a call about a week and a half ago to see if I was interested in joining a Hood to Coast team! HUZZAH! YAY! I'm so excited.  Gotta keep running so I don't slow my team down.  And since I don't know anyone on my team (well except one girl I worked with 3 years ago) the pressure is on.  I can't even explain how excited I was to get that phone call.  This is the extra jolt of motivation I need.  Can you see me doing the happy dance?

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So, when I've actually been running I've been trying out the whole "run 4 minutes/walk 1 minute" thing.  My mom, who should be the subject of her own post because she's crazy fit, has been doing it, and even did it on her last half...and her time was a minute faster than her best.  Good job Momma!  I'm liking it, though I think I need to get a watch with an interval function on it and set it to beep.  Right now I'm either constantly looking at my iPod or at the timer on the treadmill, and heaven knows staring at a clock does not make time move any faster.  Especially on the treadmill.  God I hate the treadmill.  But, I've been breaking up my long runs on days that I meet with my trainer and doing about 3 miles on the treadmill before strength training and the treadmill is helping me find a new pace.  And it's helping me keep up with the Kardashians. 

I need to start keeping up with this blog more.  It was really useful as an training tool when I first started, and though I've fallen out of the habit I'm gonna give it another go.  Here I go.  I want to run a MARATHON.  I will run a MARATHON. I will.