Half Marathon Training - 9/6/10

One of my favorite parts of blogging is the ability I have to look back on three years of my life and know that my thoughts, ramblings, prayers, musings, photos and memories have been preserved.  I love looking back on some of my pre-wedding posts.  I can't believe y'all stuck with me through those melodramatic "SHOULD I GET REAL OR FAKE FLOWERS" and "OHMYGOD WE ARE OUT OF TULLE" posts, ha!

I was out for a run today thinking that now that I'm officially on my Sergeant Bruce Half Marathon Training Schedule 2010 (aka SBHMTS '10), I really want to do a good job of tracking my training process on my blog.  This is my first half and it's going to be a huge challenge for me - I have NEVER attempted to run 13.1 miles before and it's actually kind of scaring me right now!

So bear with me through my training posts!  I am going to try to post daily - especially if I'm due for a run.  I welcome any and all advice from people who have done this before and have some advice!

Today's run was supposed to be slow:  2-3 miles at a 'conversation pace'.  I was running by myself so I told Bruce I would just talk to myself.  He laughed and told me I should talk to God - I told him that I thought that was a marvelous idea, that we had a lot to talk about. :)

I took off, trying to keep my pace around a 10:00/10:30 mile.  In the end I ran 2.77 miles in 30:18, averaging a 10:56 mile.  I'm actually impressed I was able to keep that pace - I pushed myself and purposely ran up some killer hills.  When Bruce ran the ING he said there were some gnarly hills on the course and I can only imagine the terrain will be similar for this race and want to be prepared.  I thought these shorter runs would be good opportunities to push myself up some hills.

As I was cooling off (my run ended about 0.5 mile from home so I would have the chance to walk a little bit) I was thinking that my stamina for running isn't what it used to be and it's really started to worry me.  Will I be able to get to 13.1? I'm just trying to reassure myself that I have almost 3 months before the race - and this is why I'm training!

Tomorrow's run is another 2-3 miler, but Bruce wants me to push myself a little bit more.  I'll probably set my iPod for a 5K (3.1 miles) and push myself a little bit more on speed - closer to a 10:00 mile.  Eek!