Imma 13.1

As mentioned a few weeks ago-- I finally set my sights on another race. I'll be running the Lost Dutchman 1/2 Marathon on February 16th, 2014!! If you can count (I cannot, so I googled it), that is 11 weeks away.  

I picked this race for 2 reasons-

1. I needed an excuse to fly out to Arizona to visit my brother-- and this race is just 40 minutes from where he lives. Boom.

2. Winter running is not always fun. Having a race to train for will help motivate me and keep me purposeful about the miles I'm logging despite the sub-freezing temperatures. 

For my first 1/2 marathon I used Hal Higdon's beginner training plan and it worked really well. I was completely new to running, fueling, tapering, cross training etc and I followed the schedule almost to a T. I went into race day feeling confident and excited!!
Since then I've run over 600 miles, a handful of short distance races and my first full marathon. I'm not a running expert, but I feel comfortable enough with the sport to fudge a little bit on the traditional plan and write my own schedule.

My training plan for this 1/2 is going to include a lot more cross training than last time, mostly crossfit classes. This spring I dropped my mile average by an entire minute by incorporating speed work and extra crossfit classes. For my miles I am looking for more quality over quantity. I plan to run 3 days per week with an occasional 4th day thrown in for fun-- 1 long run, 1 speed run and 1 mid-distance run. 

I realize that good training does NOT always equal good racing-- you never can predict what will go down on race day. I'm toying with a couple goal finish times, but at this time my only goal for the 1/2 is to beat my previous finish time (2:28:25). Of course I'd also like to negative split, meet my future husband and get my pictures taken with Ellen Degeneres while running this 1/2, but we'll see what happens. 

I'm excited! I love training, I love racing and I love the discovering that  occurs during each training cycle and resulting race. These are not just workouts and miles logged- they are life lessons and minutes added to my life.

 I'm already taking suggestions for songs for a killer playlist-- what should I add??