Time to get serious

So its been almost two months since I semi dropped off the face of the running planet. During that time I have managed to gain weight (dont want to know how much), finish a school year, transfer to another school, watch a lot of baseball, redecorate and reorganize my office, and still complete two 5k races with little to no training (including one with a PR).

I have been getting rather complacent since summer began. Its nice to sleep in (and then I always chose coffee and a book over running in the morning). And I dreamed up a million excuses of why I couldnt go running (most of them having to do with sleeping in too much and it being hotter than hot our really humid outside).

In the back of my mind I knew I SHOULDN'T be thinking like this but nevertheless, I did. Eventually DH stopped nagging me about it but I knew he was disappointed. And I HATE disappointing him.

Yesterday, the new issue of Runners World came in the mail. Last month I tossed it on the coffee table and never even opened it. This month, two headlines grabbed my attention: Half-Marathon Special - A Perfect Plan and Beginners - tips for regaining that lost mojo (both paraphrased but thats essentially the headlines). Both of those headlines spoke to my running heart. My first half marathon is in November (twenty weeks away) and I am a beginner who has seriously lost mojo and motivation.Recently,  I started comparing myself to everyone else out there and found myself seriously lacking and demotivated. So I read on.

This morning over my coffee, I read through the magazine again (stopping to cheer because my friend Beth was interviewed for an article!) and decided I needed to get my a$$ out there. So i laced up and pulled up Jeff Galloway's half marathon plan for beginners (the 18 week version). My main goal for November is simple: FINISH. My STRETCH goal is to finish under 3:30 (3:00 would be nice but hey, its my first...more will be coming). But right now the LONGEST distance I have ever done (even in training) is 3.2 miles (the 6 mile tourist walk in Key West doesnt count). And I still am a run/walker...I cant go .5 miles straight running yet... so I know I have a lot of work ahead of me. and the time off took away a lot of what I had built up doing c25k.

Anyhow to make a long story short: I went out thinking i was going to go for 2 miles. I did a 5 minute warm up walk and then a run/walk ratio of 1:1 (1 minute run, 1 minute walk) before a 5 minute cool down. It was hot, my legs hurt, etc. But I did it. Unfortunately, I unintentionally cut off the last .25 miles because I had timed my cool down wrong (should have gotten in at least 1-2 more walk/run cycle).

But i still went 1.77 miles in 25 minutes or so. first mile was under 14:00 so that made me happy. tomorrow: go for a 3 mile WALK (rest days  = walk days).

I now have twenty weeks to go until a half marathon...wtf was I thinking?