Day 2: First Run Complete

Today was my first actual run of marathon training.  The plan called for 5 miles, so I did 5.2 miles at a super easy pace.  My pace has really slowed lately due to: heat and fatness.  The heat I can't really do anything about other than try to get out there earlier.  The fatness is directly under my control and I'm working on it.  I'm not actually "fat" by normal people standards, but certainly by runner standards.  I'm not used to being this heavy but after hubby's DNF at the Brooklyn half I ate my emotions and stress for awhile.  Now that he's gotten a relatively clean bill of health from a cardiologist I'm really trying to worry less or do other activities when stressed. Hopefully hubby can help me by encouraging me to make better choices but not telling me "you can't" because I'm so damn oppositional that saying that phrase to me will ensure that I do exactly that.

Before my run today I did some dynamic stretching for the first time.  I used this video to guide me through some basic exercises.  It didn't feel much different from just getting out there and running, but I figure now is the time to get into better running habits.  After my run I did a short video on fitness blender that focused on lower body strengthening.  This is also something that is a bit new to me but I really want to make sure that I keep my injuries at bay.

As part of encouraging myself to run more consistently, I joined the 2015in2015 mileage game that is hosted on the Runner's World forums.  I think that it has really helped me not slack off as frequently because I know that my teammates are depending on me to run my miles.  I originally set my goal as 1000 miles for 2015, partly because if you were new to the game and wanted to create a goal higher than that you had to substantiate it - and I was a bit too lazy to do that ;-)  I've since revised my goal to 1337 miles for the year.  I am currently at 606 miles for the year.  This puts me way ahead of my initial goal pace and a bit behind my new goal pace, but marathon training will really ramp up the mileage.

One of my teammates from the 2015in2015 mileage game is an amazing runner.  He recently ran the Western States 100 which is just incredible.  He blogs about his running and writes really wonderful race reports.  Today he posted a race report that was truly inspiring.  He wrote not about his own race, but of the finish of a 70 year old woman, Gunhild Swanson.  I hope to someday be that fit.

Today's gratuitous post run selfie.  I'm a millennial so I've gotta hop on the selfie band wagon of course.  The background is the inspiring part of the picture.