A day in my life: Wednesday April 14th 2010

I’M SO EXCITED
And I just can’t hide it
I’m about to lose control
And I think I like it …..

Since the start of this year I’ve been struggling: lose a little, gain a little weight. It looks like I’m maintaining weight but I’M NOT! I still have about 7 kg’s / 15 lbs to lose. And since I’m not happy with my current weight I have to do something about that. I thought of last year, I started losing weight when I was in training from a 5K to a 10K run. I had a goal and losing weight went easy and almost naturally.

At this moment I don’t really have a goal except for running 900 K’s and 12 months, 12 races but I’m not training for anything. And the fact is that I love training towards an event, it gives me a reason to go running even if I don’t want to. So I need a new goal and here it is …..

Drumrolls please

NEXT MONDAY I START TRAINING FOR A HALF MARATHON!

No your eyes aren’t playing tricks on you, it’s true.
But you have to have a long breath because the time I’ve given myself for training is 1 year. Next year in April I want to run my first half marathon.

I have a great schedule that builds it up slowly. It’s a 28-week schedule, if I follow all trainings every week I should be finished in week 44 but I already know now that isn’t going to happen so that’s why I’ve given myself a year. I need the time to lose the last weight and to become a faster runner.

Every week exists of 4 runs:

• A run of 30 minutes up to 55 minutes with tempo runs in it.
• An interval training
• A recovery run of 20 minutes
• A long run

I will do the interval at the treadmill in the gym and maybe combine it with strength training (depends on how long the interval training is). Or I do the recovery run at the treadmill and combine that one with strength training. I will hold on to my schedule of 2 days working out, 1 day of rest. In weeks where I have 5 workouts planned I’ll do an extra strength training.

I’ve decided that if I don’t do all 4 runs in one week, I will do it over again the next week. I have some races planned in which weeks I can’t do the scheduled run on the weekend and that’s okay. When I finish the schedule and I have weeks left till my half marathon I will repeat the last weeks of the schedule.

I’m going to post my running schedule every Sunday or Monday on my blog.

When I started running last year, it became my dream to run a half marathon once. The original plan was to start Spring next year but I’m starting now. I’m turning 42 next month, I’m healthy now and I feel I can do this.

I hope you all have the time to motivate, cheer for me, inspire me the next 12 months because as I said: you are going to have a long breath, this is a one-year-journey.

I’M SO EXCITED!

Pic of the day:
Tuesday: Having my nails done at the nail salon.

Wednesday: First weeks of my half marathon schedule.

Daily Quote:
“We run, not because we think it is doing us good, but because we enjoy it and cannot help ourselves. The more restricted our society and work become, the more necessary it will be to find some outlet for this craving for freedom. No one can say, ‘You must not run faster than this, or jump higher than that.’ The human spirit is indomitable.”
Sir Roger Bannister