Half Marathon Training {December 28-January 3}

December 29: Kevin and I headed up to the gym in the middle of the afternoon because we both had the day off and knocked a couple of miles out. I just did a nice slow two miles and really enjoyed the run.

January 1: Is it ironic that I kicked off the New Year with my longest run ever? Seven miles sounded so intimidating. I mean, it’s SEVEN miles! That just seems so far. But I put my big girl pants on and went for it. Kevin was right next to me and finished his seven in under an hour (right when I hit mile 5), and I wanted to stop. My legs were really hurting and my hips were bothering me again, but my lungs felt fine. I knew I could do seven. I had just done six the week before, so what’s one more mile? Beyonce’s Bootylicious came on my playlist and that really helped (I’m not kidding about that), and once I hit 5.5, I knew I was only about 15 minutes away from being done so I just kept running and didn’t stop until I hit seven! I couldn’t believe it.

Recovery from that run wasn’t as bad as my recovery from six miles, mostly due to my new foam roller that I bought. I love it! It hurts so good after the long runs and really helped relieve some of that hip pain I was having the week before.

The next long run is 8 miles. Ah!