Let's Get Serious

Well hello there!

I am back! And I have a plan!

June was a building up month for me. Thanks to the Another Mother Challenge, I was motivated to get in a lot of running and some strength training to prepare myself for the start of Half Marathon Training.

I had a little birthday.

And now I am returning fresh from vacation. The family and I packed up and headed to my hometown of Philadelphia with a pit stop at the family beach house in Wildwood, NJ. We spent 3 wonderful days enjoying the sun, surf and sand before spending an extra couple of days back in PA.

He could have stayed in the ocean the entire time.

  

She preferred the sand.

There was also some running. 

4 early morning miles along the beach.

I will also argue that sea kayaking is a form of strength training. That stuff is no joke on the biceps!

Vacation was wonderful, but we were all ready to come home by day 6.

So after cruising through the month of June with no training plan to speak of I suddenly find myself in the second week of July. My 16 week half marathon training plan starts this week. I have modified the Train Like a Mother Runner Finish It plan to suit my family's schedule. 16 weeks is a generous time frame for the Half and I like that. I like that I will have at least 3 10 milers and a couple of 12-13 mile runs before the race. I think that will give me all the confidence I need.

And I'm going to need a lot because I am doing not one, but TWO Half Marathons this Fall.

First is the repeat of the Ramblin' Rose Women's Half Marathon. I ran this race last year and missed my time goal by 10 minutes. I know now that this course is HILLY, so I can incorporate hills into my training and hopefully crush last year's time.

Second is the OBX Half Marathon 3 weeks later. A friend of mine is coming down with some of her running buddies for the race as well. It will be an awesome girls' weekend. I haven't yet decided what my goal for this race will be other than to have fun and finish it. 

I am a little nervous about running two long races within 3 weeks of each other. Mostly,  this is because last year after the Half I did not run for 3 months due to burnout. I have high hopes for avoiding that this year since I missed out on a lot of great Spring races.

So now I am all fired up and ready to get this party started!