My Latest "Great" Idea

If it's one thing that I've learned about myself, it's that I perform better if I have a goal in mind. My weight loss goal is the big one, but, unfortunately, I just don't get excited about stuff like that - and if I'm not excited, I tend to stay in bed rather than working out.

But I'm determined to lose that last little baby weight and get my body back! So I figured it was time to set a more appealing workout goal. And, this weekend, I came up with one.

Drum roll, please...

I'm going to run a marathon!

In four months!

Can we talk about how crazy inspired that goal is? I've run two half marathons in the past few years (the Flying Pirate in North Carolina, and the El Paso Half Marathon in Texas), and did perfectly fine in both, but I'm nowhere near that condition now. I stopped working out about 6 months into my pregnancy when I started having problems with pre-term contractions, and, prior to that, I had been doing CrossFit far more than running.

I've wanted to run a marathon for awhile now, and this seems like as good a time as any. My target race is the San Diego Rock 'n Roll Marathon at the end of May. I think Sexy Pants and I are going to turn the race weekend into a mini-getaway, and enjoy some time in SD too! Bonus!

I'm basing my training on Hal Higdon's novice training plan because I used his plan for my first half-marathon and it worked great. But I'm adjusting his plan slightly to fit my lifestyle and timeframe - Little Pants complicates the training schedule some! My current plan is:

Sunday: Rest
Monday: Short run (3-5 miles)
Tuesday: Cross-train
Wednesday: Short run (3-5 miles)
Thursday: Rest
Friday: Long run (following Higdon's model)
Saturday: Cross-train

Why the changes? For one, timing - I have to fit runs in whenever someone else is available to watch LP. And second, I'm incorporating more cross-training because I get bored just running all the time. But my plan is still flexible right now, and may change as I get into things!

I'm taking this week to try and ease back into things again, and, ouch! Restarting exercise sucks :( But I logged two steady miles yesterday... Just 24 more to go!