6 Down, 6 Up

Here I am, halfway through my training for the Shamrock Half Marathon.

Crazy! 

Running Miles Only

Run + Bike + Swim

That's a total of 67 running miles and 122 "everything" miles. For a girl who ran a grand total of 13 miles for the entire month of November, I'd say that I'm not doing too bad.

So far I have been pleasantly surprised with my ability to seemingly pick off where I had left off... more of less. My pace hasn't suffered at all... in fact, I am averaging a good 30-45 seconds faster than this tim last year. How I am managing to do that, I'm not entirely sure. Perhaps all of the cross training during September, October, and November really did help me maintain what I had gained over the summer last year.

My longest run so far has been a 5 miler. At this time last year I was running much further and booking more miles per week than I am now. This is largely due to the fact that last year, I trained with a 4 runs per week schedule, which I am banned from doing these days.

Somehow, I'm not worried in the least. I guess that's a good thing.

Over the next 6 weeks I just need to stick to my plan and not get carried away or overly confident. Beginning this Saturday, every Saturday run will represent my "longest run since the break", culminating in an 11 miler that I am supposed to run the same weekend as I host my BFF's baby shower.

Hmm... THAT should be interesting.

All in all, the dominate feeling during the training cycle so far has been one of satisfaction. There hasn't been a crappy run (yet), and with every passing week I feel more and more like I can easily (?!) run the Shamrock and maybe even PR.

Just gotta keep putting one foot in front of the other.