new running challenges

Seven weeks til half marathon time! I've felt pretty good about my runs despite the fact I can get quite lazy during the week. I don't do all my small runs but I usually reach the correct mileage (give or take a few) and have so far stuck to or exceed my long run plans.

This weekend I got up to 9.2 miles on Sunday. Despite feeling like my calves would explode in the first five minutes, my body worked it out, and I finished feeling good. I didn't even give into the temptation to steal lemonade from a little girl's stand. (Sarah 1, Devil 0) I then spent the entire day pretending to not be incapacitated by super sore butt and hips along with razor sharp stomach cramps. Running, how I love thee.

I have changed my plan to include longer long runs as my confidence wanes. I have one more 9, three 10s, 2 11s and then a tapering 8. Oh the havoc my stomach will reap.

With less than two months to go I am getting nervous. Suddenly it's now darkish when I get up to run. Despite my self defense techniques, I'll soon have to eliminate morning runs. We have a lot of evening activities so finding the time for weekday runs is going to become increasingly challenging. I can't even imagine being my full marathon friends.

My other big challenge is trying to keep on track with eating healthy. All I want after the weekend is food, and a lot of it. We had a friend in town this weekend (pictures to come), and it's back to school week at my work meaning a lot of tempting lasagna, pizza, sub sandwiches, cookies and donuts. Plus this weekend is the cabin and a wedding - deadly combination.

I've gained five pounds since I started running, which is still in my optimal weight range. And I've read that training for races 5-10 pounds of weight gain is common. A lot of it is muscle and water weight. Some of it is chocolate milk, spoonfuls of peanut butter and cookies. Some if it also discovering that my metabolism is no longer 22 years old. Sad.

So it's back to paying more attention to protein and avoiding the work break room. In the time it took to write this post, three different caterers walked into my work with bags of food. I'm hiding behind my computer screen.