The Need for Speed

I started this blog as a way to keep myself accountable as I train for my very first half marathon. The San Jose Half Marathon will happen on October 6, 2013. I started training about four weeks ago and I have been using the training program from the book Train Like a Mother by Dimity McDowell and  Sarah Bowen Shea. The training program mixes up long and short weekday runs, crosstraining and speed training. They allow flexibility as moms have tendency to not have total controll of their time. They do stress the mandatory long weekend run to ensure your sucess.
I find the training program is easy to follow and quite enjoyable, here is the pdf from their website anothermotherrunner.com Half Marathon Finish It Plan.  The only part of the training that I struggle with is the speed training part. Holy heck! If ever you have felt that your heart is about to jump out of your chest and you are about to lose your breakfast, lunch and yet to be consumed dinner, then you would know how I feel during these speed training runs.

So far, I have been able to follow the training program religiously. The only draw back I have experiecned so far is the ridiculous heat wave that have hit Northern California last week. I know that I have to discipline myself into going to bed early so I can also get up early. I am currently on summer hours as I am on summer break with my kids. It is VERY, VERY easy to fall into a lazy pattern. 

What is your biggest challenge during summer run training?

The Reality of a Virtual Run - Jedi Style

Being new to running, I have recently learned about virtual races. After some research, I found out that virtual races are quite common, they have different themes and I could GET a medal. They are also run on an honor system. You sign up for a race, pick your distance, run/accomplish said distance and BAM you get your bling via USPS. My family are big Star Wars fans so when I found out about a Jedi Virtual race I immediately signed both my boys up for the 5k. As I have mentioned before, I try and encourage my kids to get out and exercise. It's not always easy but with a Star Wars medal, there were not Jedi mind tricks necessary.
My running group had organized a group in beautiful Monterey. The weather was great, the water was blue and we were pumped for the run. The trail was a bit crowded since it was the last day of the Fourth of July weekend. The three point ten miles flew by amid a view of the ocean, seals sunning themselves on rocks and tourists weaving in and out of the trail on family driven surreys (four to five people bikes dangerously being driven by happy, enthusiastic tourists. Stay out of their way, apparently the safety guidelines include "stay on the trail, avoid crowds and if you break it you buy it).
We ended the run at Monterey State Beach. The people on the sand was enough of an invite for us to relax and dip our toes in the Pacific for a post race R&R.

Monterey State Beach

The Jedi Bling

I really enjoyed the Jedi Virtual run. The kids did too. The registration proceeds went to Team in Training (win!) and the medal was pretty cool!

Have you ever done a virtual run? What are your thoughts on it?
If you haven't done one, would you consider it?

Running With My Child/The Sharks Fitness Challenge

It was a 5k run that I signed up for at the last minute. I had originally just signed up my 11 year old for the kids fun run, but he begged and begged me to run the 5k with him (ok he didn't really have to beg that hard).  So sign up I did.

Seven tutus for seven runners

Since my cousins were also signed up, we came up with a crazy idea to make teal tutus in honor of the San Jose Sharks. So Friday before the race, on a blistering day when my A/C chose to break down, we made seven tutus.

That Sunday, June 30th was the middle of a very unusual heatwave that hit our fair Bay Area. (Yes, I will admit that we are spoiled crybabies who will complain if the temperature gauge flactuates beyond 75 degrees.) It was predicted to go up to 99 degrees that day, so I made a deal with my son to try and finish the 5k in forty minutes. Not too much to ask for, right? And we are off!
We were off to a running start, well at least for the first thirty seconds before my Bubba decided to slow down to warm up first. But the warm up walk kinda lasted almost the entire race. (To be fair, he did tell me he wasn't able to sleep all night because it was too hot.) I tried to encourage him to keep going and to try to at least jog. I found myself getting frustrated because it was a race after all. I literally had to stop take a breath and come to a realization that he has not trained for this. He is trying is best and I had to forget about my time and worry about him just getting to the finish.
I run for many reasons. One of them is so that I could inspire my children to try their best and to also to as healthy as they could be. In light of that, I need to keep in mind that signing them up for one race without really helping them train for is not a way to help me reach my goal.
Thank you for reading my first blog. I hope to share with you more of my journey and I hope that you could join me.

How do you encourage your children to excercise?
Have you run races with your children?