In training... sort of

Well, this week I'm starting my half marathon training... sort of. The Madison half marathon is 16 weeks away on May 30. My plan is 16 weeks long. But its unknown to me when I will really get much training in. Between starting work and then getting sick, I've logged only about four workouts in the last three weeks. I thought I would finally get a streak going this week, only to go down with that cold at the end of the week.

I will train for this race using intervals. I was determined to start out with continuous running, but since I've logged 4 workouts in three weeks, my endurance, among other things, kinda went away. And I figure its probably better for me to start slower with the intervals and thus, hopefully less chance of getting hurt.

I've never been interested in speed, though I was getting pretty fast (for me) when I got injured in October 2008. I had run a 5-mile race at about a 9:50 pace. Contrasting that, my current pace is about 13:05. But I can't complain because I'm running again.

I've tried a couple different intervals. One night I ran 2:1 (two minutes walking followed by 1 minute walking) and another I ran 3:1. I did pretty well with the 3:1 intervals and was a bit faster. I don't know if I'll stick to the shorter intervals or try to go longer. I ran 5:2 for my first half and 6:2 for my second. Even though I don't have the endurance I had a month ago I think I'm in overall better shape than I was when I started training for the first time two years ago. So while I can't avoid the walk breaks, hopefully I can take shorter ones in order to bridge to continuous running for my planned August half.

There's a 5K here next weekend that I had considered running. While I'd love to race again, I think next weekend is too soon. If I hadn't had such a poor showing on the workouts lately I probably would have run it. My first race then will be the Shamrock Shuffle on March 14. There's a 5K and 10K, and I hope to run the 10K. But first I need to make it a full week with working out!

I'm so excited to plan my race calendar! I just hope I can make the time to put in the training to reach my goal. Its already proven difficult. But two events in my life have helped me see that I really can do anything: Running that first half marathon in San Diego and giving birth! So surely I can train for a half marathon and be a working mom at the same time.