It’s Time…

Time to get off my rump and start planning my next training for my next half marathon.  I plan to head to Gulfport, Misssissippi on December 8th to run a Double Down 5k on Saturday and half marathon on Sunday morning.  This is yet another addition to my map of the 50 states as I run a Half marathon it them.

Over the last few years, I found that once I started training for my half marathons, it was easier to schedule a few close together so that I didn’t have to go through a complete ‘training’ every time, but could ride the coat tails of the first half’s training and just maintain through the next few.
This year I plan to follow up 2 months later in Disney World again with the 5k, 10k, and Half Marathon on Disney Princess weekend… 3 weeks later completing my 5th Asheville Half Marathon on the Biltmore Estate.

My appeal to this race started when I discovered running in warm areas when its cold at home was fun!  Although Kiawah, SC was not warm in December 2016, I looked further south this year.  The views look gorgeous and this race is in its baby stages as this is its 2nd year.  It looks to have a great post-race party as well.  The course should be fast and flat, and 1-way!  The start line in in Gulfport, the finish line in Biloxi.  The road we race on runs alongside the beach, in which I have been told has no/few houses between the road and the ocean.  So a beautiful view the entire way!  The 5k was just a challenging add on :).  Additional information for this race can be found at http://www.mississippigulfcoastmarathon.com if you are interested in joining!  We rented a house and are sharing the trip with friends who will run as well with us!  They will be spending the fall training by the coast themselves.

Training this summer has been steadily improving as my goal has been to normalize and improve my short distance pace.  Donning my Asheville Marathon in training tee, as I am in my 3rd year as an ambassador for that race (that’s another blog post, but I have a discount code if you want it!)  I have also been working out 2 mornings a week with a friend who does 6am Cardio and Weight training sessions down at Lake Tomahawk for $5/day on Mondays and Thursdays, if anyone would like to join!!

I always feel I am best mentally prepared when I write my schedule down and have you hold me accountable 🙂

Looking at the schedule, my longest training run should be the weekend after Thanksgiving on 11/25/2017.  My training theory is that I give myself 2 weeks to hit the next mileage marker, meaning the week in between can be a .5 in between, or a shorter run to give my legs a long run break.  The one thing I don’t want to do is create an overuse injury with too many long runs back to back… there will be shorter runs in each of the weeks leading up to the long run during that week.  Cross training is helpful as well.  The dates below are goal miles by goal dates.

Cheer me on!

8/12-4 miles
8/19-5 miles
9/2-6 miles
9/9-7 miles
9/23-8 miles
10/7-9 miles
10/14-10 miles
10/28-11 miles
11/11-12 miles
11/25-13 miles
12/10-Race Day