I am going to make this update short and sweet because I am waking up at 5 a.m. to go to the gym because I have promised myself that I am going to stick to my training schedule, but it’s already getting pretty late for getting up that early.
So I am now less than 7 weeks away from running another half-marathon. (Well, “running” may be an exaggeration, but more on that in a minute.) I feel like I haven’t given a real update recently. There has been so much going on and there seems to be so much more to do between now and race day. I need to drastically increase my mileage. I still need to raise over $1200. And I am trying to coordinate a number of things in order to help me do that. It’s a little overwhelming.
The muscle pain is not a ton better even though I have been doing pretty good at increasing my water intake. I have been consistently drinking over 75 ounces a day for about two weeks now. My goal for the time being is 100 ounces a day, but I would like to increase it more after that. I’m thinking that if an average person needs eight 8-ounces glasses a day, I should probably double that, taking me to 128-ounces. I have hit over 100 several days, yesterday I think was around 113-ounces. I’m really hoping that as I consistently do this, that some of the issues I’ve been having will go away. I still feel that this is the root of a lot of my problems.
So due to the pain, running has not been easy. I’m having to get used to the idea of walking this half-marathon. I don’t like it one bit, but it may be a reality. I made it for a short run on Sunday, but I decided to go for a longer one today. I went out to Umstead Park for a nice trail run, since I had the day off and the time to do so. I took a short 2.5 mile loop to see how it would go. I felt pretty good at the end of it, so I decided to run it backwards. Again, “run” is not really the right word, but I kept up a jog/walk for the whole loop. The last mile was pretty rough. My muscles were hurting and I didn’t feel like going on, but I finished it and logged 5 miles today. I’m pretty impressed that I was able to do that.
I think for now, I need to focus on increasing distance and not worrying about running or keeping a quick pace. It’s hard because it just takes so much time, obviously even more so when you’re moving slower. It’s hard to get in a longer workout during the week, unless I have a day off like I did today. But I’m at least going to try to keep up shorter workouts during the week and saving my Sunday afternoons for longer distances. Even as the heat moves in.
But I do have an exciting announcement! The runners from the Triangle area are putting on a Team Challenge fundraising event at Top of the Hill in Chapel Hill. We will have the Back Bar area and will have drink specials, half-priced appetizers and some great items to raffle off. It will be next Thursday, April 25th starting at 6:30 p.m. We will be raising money by selling tickets, which we will begin doing soon. We are still nailing down all of the specifics, but I will be posting all of the details a little later on this week. We’d love to have you come out and enjoy some food and drinks and support a really great cause.
Ok, this isn’t ending up being that short, so it’s time to sign off. Good night!