I love to run. I go to bed thinking about it and wake up thinking about it. I've been training for a half marathon for the last couple of months and love the feeling of accomplishment that comes from meeting my weekly running goals. This month, I wanted to do a resolution that would focus on my running, mostly because I need an outlet for my thoughts and ambitions for this upcoming race.
My goal for the half marathon is to finish in under two hours. In order to accomplish this I have to keep a pace of under 9:05 per mile. To increase my speed, I have been doing speed work and tempo runs each week and have seen a great improvement on my times.
I've come a long way since last year when I started running again after I had Matthew. It took me about four months to get some semblance of fitness back into my life and I was able to run 2 miles in 19:50. Not bad for my first post c-section "race." The feelings after that run were one of relief that my body had not fallen apart and also of determination. That day, I resolved within my being that running would never feel that bad or hard again. I am happy to say, that it has slowly but steadily improved. The other day I ran 2 miles in 17:15 and I could have easily gone faster.
So this brings me to my March resolution: By the end of March, I want to be able to run 3 miles in 24:30. This goal is ambitious for me but a part of me believes that it is possible. As of Friday, my 3 mile time was 26:30 (this was not an all out effort and there was definitely room to go faster) which means that I have to cut my average mile pace by about 40 seconds.
In order to accomplish this goal I have to get stronger and lighter. To do this, there are two things I will focus on daily for the next 30 days.
1) Exercise-- Run 4 days a week (one long run, one speed workout, one easy run, and one tempo run), cross train 2 days (upper and lower body strength training), and rest and stretch 1 day.
2) Eat--Make healthy food choices every day and stay within 1,300-1,600 / day calorie range.
Food wise I have no idea what my daily caloric intake is at the moment. All I know is that over the last couple of months, I've lost about 3 lbs and have managed to maintain. Which technically is a good thing but I got to thinking the other day and realized that if I stopped working out as much as I am and didn't change my food intake, I would definitely gain weight. Now if I was at my goal weight, this wouldn't be a bad arrangement...workout regularly, enjoy reasonable amounts of food, and maintain a healthy weight. Unfortunately, I am not at my goal weight so I have to change something. I can either work out more which I don't have the time for or I can cut down on my portion sizes. I pick portion sizes. This means I have to keep a daily food log which is something I totally hate to do but according to what I have read, it is something that is pretty important at least until you truly understand what real portion sizes look like. Apparently, I don't have this figured out quite yet so I will keep the dreaded food log.
If I can actually stick to the food aspect for the next 30 days, I should be able to lose at least 5 lbs this month which will prove very helpful in reaching my goal time.
So here's my starting day stats:
1 mile time: 8:30 Goal: 8:10
2 mile time: 17:15 Goal: 16:20
2.5 mile time: 21:50 Goal: 20:24
3 mile time: 26:30 Goal: 24:30
Weight: 172 lbs Goal: 167 lbs
Throughout the month, I will post my weekly progress every Monday for my three mile time and my weight loss. I'm excited to see what this month brings!
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