I have a healthy confidence in my smarts and I know a lot about a lot, but conditioning for a half marathon while blogging about it…not really my thing.  The reason I gave my stats in the very first post, here, was because running a Half Marathon for some people is just the way they spend the weekend.  For them, signing up for a half marathon is not an inciting incident..it’s form of entertainment.  (Yea, it confuses me too.)  That isn’t me.  I trained for almost three months to run the 5k fun run, Color Me Rad. (I highly recommend it, or one like it, for all beginning runners.  I did it with my 8-year-old and it was a great moment to share with her.)  Anyway, I digress, back to my inept knowledge of running.  For three months I followed a couch-to-5k program to run a fun run (only 3.2 miles) and I only ran it in 30 mins, managing to lose just a tad over five pounds.  The finish time really doesn’t matter to me and neither do statistics or numbers.  I am more of a words kind of person.  Words woo me, numbers don’t.  But in the case of training for this Half marathon, I have to give the “numbers” some credence.  So, in honor of my number-minded husband, here are the nuts and bolts of this particular Inciting Life Event…

 

The Plan

I am running the Diva 1/2 Marathon on December 7th.  I figured, as long as I am running 13.1 miles for the first time, I might as well get a boa, tiara and a glass of champagne out of it.

I have to finish it with a 16 min/mile.  Basically I envision myself running from the cart guy at the end of the race who swoops you up for being a turtle in a hare’s race.  (Secret be told – this vision comes with Mario Bros type music playing in the background, just to make it dramatic.)

I walked for 50 mins at a brisk 15 min/mile pace on Saturday, which resulted in about 3.25 miles (only 10 more miles to go…grrr).

I am weighing-in weekly with a group of wonderfully supportive people who are on the same “get-healthy” journey and so far I’m down 2 lbs from last week.

My diet will (should) consist of mainly vegetables, fruits, legumes, nuts, lean protein with very limited-to-no dairy and wheat.  Basically clean eating.  My body can probably handle dairy – but it really dislikes wheat (even though, like my excuses, I’ve been ignoring it for so long I’ve accepted this as just a part of how I should feel.)  Besides, taking wheat out of my diet these days makes me feel like a cliche.

 

The Schedule

I found this article to be helpful (you can really find anything on Google) and I am following at least the Phase I part before switching to my Ease into 5K app (I found this one very helpful for beginning runners).  What amazed me was this schedule was almost exactly the time frame I had for my race – April to November.  Well, it was the exact schedule but I put off deciding on this for a month, so I started in May.  I am on week three and should be around 45 mins x 3 days a week of walking.  So far I’ve done a couple of 50 minute walks and yesterday did 35 minutes.  Here’s what I did one night way back in the beginning planning stages.  This is my “Phase I”:

 

The Tools

Right now I am using Map My Run (but setting it to walk).  I love the GPS settings and, since I’m a visual learner, seeing my distance on a map is rewarding for me.

I listen to Pandora or my “workout” playlist on iTunes.  I have been trying to put together songs with an approximate 16 min/mile beat to walk to.

Of course I have my FitBit, which I connected to Map My Run and My Fitness Pal, at first, but I found it was double tracking.  It works great, unless my 4-year-old son taps it a bunch of times and sends it into sleep mode without me noticing.

And then I have My Fitness Pal App.  It has an AMAZING database and the little scanner is actually fun to use.  It takes me back to when I was little and thought scanning groceries and pushing buttons on the cash register looked like the coolest thing ever!  The only downside to this little app is you actually have to enter in your food – I’m still waiting for something that visually sees the food going into my mouth and, when I’m at my calorie limit, yells “NO!” loud enough to cause significant embarrassment and emotional scaring.  (Patent pending, of course.)

I highly recommend all of these tools for anyone beginning to run, walk, workout or want a way to track calories.  Lastly, get support and gather a community.  There are so many great communities you can join, but if digital friends aren’t your thing, recruit locally.  Find a good friend to walk/run with and will act as an accountability partner.  So far I have told a handful of my friends about my crazy moment of insanity when I signed up for the Diva.  I have told an even smaller number of people about this blog.  Why?  It’s terrifying.  But most things about an inciting life are I guess.  In a good way.  If it was comfortable all of the time, it wouldn’t be inciting.  But I keep seeing posts about friends who are taking on new and exciting challenges and I think, it’s going to be ok…and….I’m not the only one.  Because often times the most terrifying part is the unknown and thinking you are the only one in the WORLD who feels like you do or struggles like you do.   So, it’s about time to go public and create a bigger support group for myself and for those who are looking for a way to take a leap and be inspired to live an inciting life.  And I’ll just keep telling myself “I’ll be ok.  It’ll be ok”, until it is.  Because it will be.  When all is said and done, and the race is over, I will have tried my to hardest to do what’s best.  And like I tell our kids “that’s all we can ever ask for”.