This is for the hills…

I, obviously, am a glutton for punishment.
You see, I ran my first half on Dec 2 in Vegas. I followed that up about 6 weeks later by running another half in Houston on January 13th. And now, it looks like I’m running another one in about 8 weeks in Waco, Texas – the Bearathon.

I may or may not have an addiction.

For Vegas, I was just going to prove to myself I could run 13.1 miles and not die. I wanted to enjoy the rest of our time in Vegas so I feel like I was really conservative.

For Houston, I wanted to push myself harder since I already knew I was capable of running that distance. I knew it was a ‘flat’ race which made the thought of beating my Vegas time much more realistic.Even through the pouring rain and the chafing ass, I managed to PR [personal record].

For the Bearathon, that is not the case. This is hills. This is some motherfucking hills.

My plan is just to finish this one and say, “I fucking did it.” Last year, I ran the 5k portion of this race and remember thinking “Man, how cool would it be to say I ran the race that claims to be the toughest half-marathon in Texas?” You know, as I passed people puking and what not. At that time I never thought I would get to a point that I would think myself capable of doing it. But it’s amazing how time can change you.

After running part of these hills during my Zoo 10k last year, I know they are no  joke and instead of winging it with my training [which is kind of what I did for Houston] I’m attempting a training plan. I want to make sure I’m as prepared as I can be for this. I’ll officially start next week. For Mondays, I’m thinking my cross-training may be a spin class during lunch. Or who knows, maybe I’ll just jump on the trampoline. I’m wild, I tell you. Tuesday & Thursdays are just going to be me running at whatever is comfortable. I don’t want to injure myself over these next 8 weeks. But I do want to attempt to get faster. After reviewing my splits over Houston, I know I’m capable of being faster – I’m just not really good at pushing myself to be faster. I think dedicating one day a week to work on speed or running with hills will help prepare.

Wednesdays will be the days I curse Satan for allowing me to meet Moj. I love her dearly, but she makes me hurt. I can barely move my arms still today from our workout on Wednesday. She’s not a personal trainer, just a close friend whose always willing to help out a novice. Our workouts always vary. Stairs, burpees, squats, weights. She makes up the playlist and I just cry. 

So, here’s to another 8 weeks of training!

In the meantime, I have a 5k tomorrow morning – I’m hoping to drop some time on this, so fingers crossed.

Also, Sar from [life of love], me and a few other people are going to do a mud run on May 25th! If you’re in the Waco area, sign up! www.mudquestrun.com . We are doing the 9am heat for the 3.5 mile race. It’s going to wonderful, check out the site and let me know if you’re interested!  I ran it last year [2 miles] and had a blast – it’s a workout, but it’s fun. Promise.