Monday, July 28, 2014

Kicking off a New Training Cycle

This week kicks off training for the Rock 'n Roll St. Louis half marathon!  This October 19th race, my second attempt at 13.1, promises to be a good time.  I'm looking forward to exploring the course, hearing the bands at each mile, and experiencing the day with Emily.

After waffling in indecision for quite some time, I finally created a training plan for us to follow.  I took bits and pieces of information I've gathered over the past few years and cobbled together a reasonably coherent plan.  I'm satisfied that this plan will be a good starting point, and I fully expect that we will tweak it as we progress through the next few months.  I had fun setting the plan to our specific workout tendencies: Sunday long runs, three midweek runs, and two cross-training days.  I know what worked well for us last spring (and what our possible pitfalls might be), and so I tried tailoring a plan to meet our needs and challenge us to rise above the stumbling blocks.  And the purple highlights on the plan?  Just for Emily - her favorite color :)


My first attempt at creating a training plan.  Fingers crossed that it works well for us!

I love the fresh feeling of a new training plan.  All those boxes waiting to be checked off.  All those miles to spend chatting with my friend.  All those tough workouts to conquer together.  I know we will have down weeks, hot runs, and days that we'd rather snooze than run.  And oddly enough, I look forward to those, too, because without them I couldn't fully appreciate the good days and the runs that feel almost effortless.

So I raise my glass of lemon lime water (gotta preload those electrolytes!) and toast the start of this training cycle.  Here's to many injury-free miles, a friendship built on shared goals and hard work, and beginning each day with happiness and gratitude.  Cheers!