Sunday, January 17, 2010

Training For A Half Marathon

One of my new years resolutions is to run a half marathon.  I'm on track to run one at the end of June and possibly one at the beginning of June.

I ran through my pregnancy until the pain caused me to only walk and then to stop all together.  It felt really good to be 6 months pregnant and running 3-4 miles a day.  But that was in July and I haven't ran since.  Until last week.

I can't believe how out of shape I am!  I mean...  having to be put on bed rest and then having a C-Section will put you out of commission for a while I guess...  but seriously, this is ridiculous.

This is what I'm doing for now.  I go for half an hour and try to get further each time in that amount of time.  If, for some reason I don't even get 2 miles in that amount of time (which is what happened the first two times) I will go until I get to the 2 mile mark.  I went 32 minutes and hit 2 miles.  But the last time I ran I went 2.2 miles in 30 minutes.  So it's better!  Not to mention the 10 (literally) times I ran up the stairs and into Naomi's room because she was screaming during her nap. 

I don't run the entire time (yeah right - OUT OF SHAPE, remember?).  I try to not walk below a 3.5 on the treadmill and do intervals of the walking and then running at a 5.8-6 for a few minutes.  I've gone 3 minutes at a 6 so far and each time I try to go for 30 seconds longer.

My goal is to get to 3 miles in 30 minutes by the end of February.  It's very hard to get myself back into shape.  And it's not been fun to get on the scale and see that I've only lost half a pound when before without exercising at all I was losing a pound a week.  But, knowing what I know about the body and exercise I am retaining more water.  So, that goes up on the scale.

If in 2 weeks I'm not back on track to losing a pound or more a week I'll be sad!  Especially since I finished off my chocolate and have stopped eating that.  And I'm eating better because I'm making dinner.

Another goal?  To be within 5 pounds of my pre pregnancy weight by my 3 year anniversary.  Holy cow... 3 years.  It's in less than 3 months.  Crazy.  10 pounds in 3 months is VERY do-able. 

8 comments:

Brandon and Calley said...

awesome, kinda makes me feel like a wimp though- I didn't even just have a baby, and I'm waaay out of shape :)

Unknown said...

Time flies- I registered for a half over 4 months ago and it is here this weekend! I can not believe it. I am not very fast- a 10 minute mile is one i am proud of, but for a half they say I should shoot for 12 minutes a mile due to distance.
Wish me luck!!!
and I wish you luck too!

Anonymous said...

Wow. You go girl!

Victoria Elder said...

Good Luck with that! So much work!

Ashley said...

Keep it up! I am running again, and its really hard for me since I've always been a sprinter the longest I ever ran was one lap around the track, its a struggle for me to keep going to the mile mark but I too am making progress..its slow but its there!

Ashley said...

Whitney I am wondering if you can tell me how to change my font so I can have a super cute font like you??

Lena Gilbert said...

You and lindsey might want to try a 10k or something in May..just to kind of warm up for the end of june. I love the half-marathon distance, its my favorite and wayyy easier than a full one. I think I'm going to try and enter before the end of january because it fills up kind of fast I have heard.

Ashley said...

Thanks!! I will give it a shot, I have been so jealous of your cute font forever!!