Challenging Myself

Despite having run three half-marathons and one full, I've never actually gone into a race with a goal in mind (unless "cross the finish line" or "have fun" counts).  To be honest, I really just enjoy running for the sake of running. It's the perfect time to clear my head, collect my thoughts, and unwind my day.

snapped with my phone during my last run. I am in love with this place.

That being said, I also really like challenging myself. Ever since I made a new PR in my last half marathon, I've been itching to get my time down. Not just a little, either-- I want to knock it back more than seven minutes, coming in at a round, beautiful two hours. That's a mile every 9:19 minutes, and for me, that's pretty darn speedy.

Seeing as this time is ambitious, I'm tackling this goal with an actual plan. Usually my running "plans" consist of "run almost every day; do one long run a week" so this is a fairly big step for me. I've been quasi-following this plan from Runner's World, and so far, it's been going fairly well:

Why quasi-following?

This plan is intense. Not intense in terms of millage-- that's all fine and dandy-- but intense in terms of running jargon. I haven't done a formal running workout since my brief stint with cross country in the sixth grade (I quit after a month to join the Drama Club-- What can I say? I'm a ginormous, life-long nerd), so a lot of the terminology is a bit fuzzy to me. Still, it's been great having a plan to form my workouts around, even if my speed workouts involve are closer to "sprint 6 lamp-posts, jog 2, repeat" than anything involving an actual track.

But anyway.

Geneva Half Marathon. May 15th. 2 hours. It's going to happen.

finish line at lisbon. I'm a pink blur :)