Half Marathon Training - Week Two

Before I fill you in on our training for this week, I want to update you on my weight loss progress.

The healthy eating/exercise plan is still going well. I've been getting in my 10,000 steps each day and Sugar has continued to fill the fridge with veggies and protein each week while I watch My 600 lb Life and text the girls, who are at their own homes, meal prepping for the week and watching TV as well. I'm down 10 pounds and can now fit comfortably in my clothes again. I've been diligently using My Fitness Pal to keep me on track, as have the girls, which makes it much easier to stick to the plan. Each Friday we do our own weigh ins and share our results with each other and we've all been doing great. It's so much easier to keep going when you have a good support team.

Awesome sneakers from Biped

Alright - back to training. Tuesday we did 5K with the LTRs, who are way faster than I will ever be. They officially finish their program this coming weekend, but they've done so well, they could have been done weeks ago. Thursday, we did 6K with 5 hill repeats thrown in, just for fun. Did I tell you I bought a new pair of sneakers? My Saucony Blues have been showing signs of wear and I wanted to be sure I had a decent pair for running the Tely/Half, so I headed down to Biped's new store on Water Street and got these new Saucony Pinks. I wore them on my long run this weekend and they are just as awesome as my Blues. I couldn't be happier.

Our scheduled long run this week was 11k. For some reason I have been nominated as the training coach for our little group. I create a possible route and they always seem to agree to it without question. I'm pretty sure they don't even look at the maps, they're just happy to have someone else set it all up for them. Take Sunday's route for example. If they had really looked at the route I picked, I'm sure they (Renee) would have said no. It wasn't until Sunday morning that they (Renee) finally realized what we were going to do. Truthfully, I started to doubt the route myself at about the 9K mark. It was blissfully warm and feeling overheated, I wondered if running up Paradise Road was such a good idea after all.


Lori was the first to reach the top. When she runs a hill, she runs a hill. Full steam to the top, no stopping or slowing down. I think I was second, with a whole lot less steam, but no stopping. I waited at the top for Renee and Paula and it took a minute for me to realize that Lori had stopped a little further down the road and was talking to someone. She had a red cup in her hand. The someone she was talking to was waving at me with a big toothy grin. I'm staring, trying to make sense of what is going on, when Renee runs past me, angry running music blaring from her headphones, asking, "Is that Sugar???" She took off like a blue streak and it finally dawned on me that Sugar had set up an impromptu water station for us. I left Paula on the hill alone (Sorry Paula) and ran ahead to join in the celebration with Lori and Renee. There was Gatorade being poured, ice cubes in buckets, cold paper towels in baggies, towels to dry off with. I'm pretty sure Belinda Carlisle was on the radio singing "Heaven Is A Place On Earth". 

Thanks Sugar! You are AMAZING.

I now know how all the runners who stopped for sponges at our Tely 10 pit stop felt. It was so encouraging to see someone you know standing there with a little pick me up to get you through the last few kilometers. I'll definitely be happy to see Gina and the gang on the Tely route this year, and I'm sure so many others will as well.

Paula did make it up the hill and joined us for a cool down before heading to our finish line at Coffee Matters. She wrote how she felt about the experience over at the PRC blog. Be sure to check it out.

We survived another week. The text messages have already been flying back and forth about our next long run. I'm not sure what has happened to my tea-drinking, rest-day-taking running buddies, but I think I've inadvertently turned them in to running monsters. They are adding distance and hill repeats to all our runs and rearranging their lives to fit in with the running schedule. They are an amazing group and I'm so glad that I get to go through this process with them. Bring on week three!