Today was a long run for me today--6 miles. Normally, I like to do long runs outdoors  but by the time I got up and dressed it was too warm outside. So off to the dreadmill. I got on the treadmill  next to this cute guy in the gym. I never spoke to him but I envisioned us running together on a tropical beach, you know how you see it in the movies. It was a great motivator. Don't judge me.

I focused on my arm swing some more. I noticed that the faster I run the more I tense up and shoulders raise. It does feel awkward when you have the correct form, shoulders down and relaxed, elbows at 90 degrees, and arm swing from from shoulder.

I ran 6 miles for an hour and 18 minutes with a pace of 13 min/mile.

Today is an off day. Yay!

Pre-run blog: I woke up 2:35 am and could not fall back to sleep. So now it's time to get up to run my 3 miles and I'm sleepy but here I go. I think I am going to grab an espresso from Starbucks, I'll report how this goes for me. A friend is texting me now at 5:20am to see if I'm getting up to go running. You gotta love the running community.




Post-run blog: It went better than I expected. I think the espresso worked. I was encouraged (pressured) to run the same route as my running group. A mile into our run, I normally veer off their route because they run a longer distance than I wish to run and because they run fast.  Doing it this way helps me to keep up with their pace for that 1 mile duration but also allows me run to at my own pace for the remainder of the run.  So today in the beginning I was not feeling so good about this extra mileage and these hills I was doing but I got into the groove of it. I was actually enjoying running along side them, although I knew they were running slower for my; at my pace.

Today I was working on the arm swing and trying not to exhaust too much energy into my arm movement. I heard in a running discussion that some runners cross their arm over their chest. I concentrated on swinging my arms from the shoulder and keeping my elbows at a 90 degree angle. Also, keeping the shoulders relaxed. The idea is that your feet will go the way you tell your arm to go. I not sure about all of that stuff but I tried. Of course when you get tried, all that stuff goes out the window and you are just suffering to get to the end. I'm not thinking about my form, posture, breathing, I just want to give up and go back to bed. I did 3.57 mi at about a 13:30 pace.  

P.S. By the way, that friend who texted me to see if I was awake to go running, didn't even go running. smh

http://www.nyrr.org/youth-and-schools/running-start/coaching-videos/middle-school/form/form-101-arm-movements

My running friends. thats me in the back in the blue shirt.

Treadmill


2.00

Duration
25:00

Average Pace
12:30

Calories Burned
221

Went to Planet Fitness, my gym to do my scheduled miles. It started out tough because I had to use the bathroom often, and not just pee. But I eventually got it together and completed the 2 miles.

Today is my first day of training. I think I did pretty well. I ran 3 miles in the morning with some friends in a running group.
Runkeeper

Miles
3.14

Duration
38:20

Average Pace
12:12

Calories Burned
371
This was a fast pace for, I think I will slow it down so that I can increase my pace more gradually.

So here I go. I'm officially training for my 1/2 marathon. I have ran 1/2 marathons before but I never officially train for one. I love 1/2 marathon because they are enough of a challenge for me but not life altering life a full marathon. I never seriously thought about my pace, PR, my breathing patterns and all those other things runners blog, I just ran. So lets see our this works for me. I went on-line and printed a guild line that I follow. This should be fun.