Week 1 of Half-Marathon Training Round 3 Begins!!

It is official...this week begins my 3rd round of training with Houston Fit for my half-marathon training! Whohoo!! Orientations begin this week and the first group run in Saturday. But, I will be on my way to the beaches of North Carolina on Saturday morning so I will miss that run, but I do plan on doing it on my own. I will officially start running with my group next week. For the first time in a LONG time I am really excited to get back into the training and have a couple goal races to train for. I have ran 4 half-marathons in the past 2 years....2 of them I trained for but really struggled through them and barely finished, the other 2 I did not train for. So, yesterday when my hubby asked me if I was going to do anything differently this time around it got me thinking... First of yall, yes, I plan on doing many things differently. To name a few-

-In the past I did not really focus on the nutrition side of running. I really need to lose a good 20ish lbs and have needed to for the past couple of years. I continued to eat what I wanted and never lost any weight. You would think if you are running 20-35 miles a week you would lose some weight right? Not me...I did not change my diet ( if anything I ate more because I was hungry ALLLLL the time ) so I did not lose weight. This time around I really want to focus on eating cleaner, healthier foods, cooking more at home and FINALLY lose these extra pounds! I need to learn that when I carb load before a long run that does NOT mean I need to eat a giant bowl of pasta and 4 pieces of bread. Duh. So, this is going to be something I really am going to work on.

-Next, in the past I found every excuse under the sun to miss runs....I was not consistent with my week day runs and when I would miss a run with the group, I would not do it on my own most of the time. I got pretty good at saying no to doing anything on Friday nights and used to Saturday morning long runs, but it was the week day runs that I slacked on. Those weekday shorter training runs are just as important as the long runs on Saturday mornings so I need to commit to going to as many as possible and if I have to miss a run, I need to do it on my own instead of just forgetting about it all together.

-Finally, I want to add in some cross-training to my running schedule! Maybe some spin classes, pilates, a couple days of P90X...we'll see. I just know it would help me lose the weight and make me stronger. I used to love working out and I miss that feeling I would get after a good class or workout, so this is definitely an important goal :)

If I can lose some weight and do these 3 things, I really think my training will be SO much better than the last....I will get stronger and faster, feel better about myself and grow to love running even more!

My first half-marathon will be December 11th in Houston. After that, the next one I am signed up for is The Woodlands Half-Marathon March 3, 2012. Here we go!!