What Started It All

Oh, the Places You'll Go......Dr. Seuss had it right.  He understood that life brings about all different kinds of opportunities and situations that can take us every which way.  I titled this blog, "Oh, the Places You'll Go" because I thought it was fitting for what I am trying to achieve.

The main purpose of this blog is to document my progress as I begin training for a 1/2 Marathon this upcoming September.  Five months from now.  Five months of complete and utter dedication to running (something I have never been all that great at), yet here I am. 

Many people run marathons for different reasons: just because, to raise money for a cause, to support another person running, to lose weight, or for the satisfaction of knowing they completed a race.

I definitely fall under the "lose weight" and "satisfaction" categories.  Oh, and I am definitely in it for the sticker :) I always think it is so cool when I see someone with a 13.1 or 26.2 sticker stuck on their car. 

So what is the plan you ask? Well, I did some research and it looks like there are a plethora of options on how to train, and this is the one I am going with:

http://www.fitsugar.com/Half-Marathon-Training-Schedule-Beginners-2845222

I chose this particular schedule because it is more fitting for someone that has never really ran a race before, and I most definitely fit under that category.  And the "CT" days allow for me to do something other than run (which I will most definitely need). On those days I can do a class, or go for a bike ride or use the elliptical, ANYTHING other than running.  This schedule is set up for 12 weeks, and even though the race isn't for 20 weeks, I am going to start training on Sunday.  My ultimate goal is to be able to run the full 1/2 in under 3 hours.  That is about a 13:30 mile.  Which I think is a realistic goal.

So here is the plan.  Every day I am going to blog how my run was, how far I ran, how long it took, the average speed, how winded I was, and so forth.  And every week (on Sunday) I am going to take a picture of myself to see if my body is changing (which I am hoping it does).  Also, once a week (on Wednesday) I will log what my current weight is.  I chose Wednesday because that is the day that I weigh in at Weight Watchers (www.weightwatchers.com) and that way the weigh in is consistent in time and location. 

So here is what it will look like:

Distance:

Time:

Average Speed:

Winded (scale 1-10):

Any Painful Spots:

Wednesday Weigh In:

Goals for This Week: 

Additional Notes: 

Hopefully at the end of the 20 weeks I will have reached my goal of running the 1/2 marathon in under 3 hours and have reached my goal weight.  I am not sure what the weight number is right now, but all I can say is I want to look something like this:

Thanks for checking in and I look forward to sharing this journey with you.

Over and out.