What have I done?!

I've signed up to run a half marathon, that's what. Yikes. I'm still kind of in disbelief that I did it. Jen, Michelle, and I have been talking about doing the Disneyland Half Marathon over Labor Day weekend. Michelle and I were keyed up to start running after going and cheering for Jen at the Rock and Roll Marathon last month. Jen checked the other day and found out the marathon was already 65% full. Her sweet husband went ahead and signed her up for it. I was hemming and hawing about whether or not I wanted to do it. I mean, I'm only on week 7 (out of 9) of Couch to 5K and the most I've run continuously is 1.5 miles. I really wanted to have at least run a 5K if not a 10K before I had to register for the half marathon.

When I was running yesterday morning I kept going back and forth on whether or not I should just sign up for it or not. I still hadn't decided. My husband said I should, that he had just signed up for the Alcatraz swim without being able to actually swim the whole distance, but I still wasn't sure. Jen posted on Facebook that she'd registered (or rather her husband had registered her), and John replied that he was thinking of just signing me up for it to make me train and get ready. I didn't really want it to come to that, so I went ahead and registered for it yesterday. Yikes!

I'm excited and nervous. The race is a little more than six months away, so I have time to train for it--the bummer is just that I have to train over the summer which means running in HOT weather. A friend told me about a summer race series that I'll probably do to keep practicing, so that will help. I'll just have to get up at the ass crack of dawn and go running before it gets hot. That will just mean I can nap in the afternoon, right? It will definitely be cool to be able to say I've run a half marathon, so here's hoping I can actually do it!

My dog isn't invited anymore

I've been taking our dog, Sam, on my morning runs with me. Since it's still dark out, it was nice for a sense of added protection, plus he loves going on walks. Today was the final straw, however. I'd get annoyed with him in the past because he'd want to stop and sniff stuff. I can't fault him for that--he's a dog and dogs like to sniff things. I'd just yank the leash and he'd catch up with me. Monday I was pretty impressed with him because he'd get as far ahead of me as he could, sniff, and then fall back in line with me once I got to where he was. Not so much today.

He tried to take off after a cat at one point. Then a bunny. Then there was a guy running with his dog, and Sam freaked out and wanted to meet that other dog. He's usually really calm when he sees other dogs, so I was surprised with how he was acting today. When we saw the other guy I had to stop running, let them get far enough in front of us that the dog wasn't a distraction and then keep going. Ugh. I didn't want to get up and go running this morning anyway, so having to stop during one of my running segments did not help.

Poor Sammy doesn't know it, but he's not coming with me anymore. I had figured I wouldn't take him much longer anyway because the length of the runs is increasing (Friday I do 20 minutes of straight running...God help me!), and I didn't want him to have to run the whole time. But he pretty much decided for me today that taking him with me just isn't going to work anymore.

Body Fat Percentage

I found out from my friend Michelle that I can get my body fat percentage tested at our gym. I'd been curious to find out what it was...supposedly our scale here at home will tell me, but I couldn't figure out how to get it to work. I'll be honest, I was a bit nervous what the number was going to be, but I told myself as long as it was under 40% I'd be happy. I really had no idea what to expect and wasn't sure if that was a high enough number to pick. The guy who tested it was kind of an ass hat--you know the type, douchey jock sales guy--but I was pretty pleased with the results. It came out as 27%! I didn't think that was bad at all. It fell in the "fair" category when he busted out a chart that showed what numbers meant what for age ranges. I thought that was decent. I'm not sure how often going forward I should check it, maybe once a month?

I like running?

I got up at the ass crack of dawn this morning to run. Actually I don't think it was even dawn yet as it was still dark. And cold. And quiet. As much as I don't like getting up super early with my kids, I don't mind it if it's for something I'm doing for myself, like time alone without them awake or doing something like going for a run. Plus my neighborhood is so quiet. Not that it's usually loud, but it's different when most of the houses are dark and there aren't any other people out or cars driving around.

Anyway, I decided to redo Week 5 Day 1 of my Couch to 5K program since I hadn't been running since last Tuesday. I knew that Day 2 was going to be eight straight minutes of running, and since it had been awhile I didn't want to jump straight into that. Halfway through my run I was wishing I would have because I was having a really easy time of it! My breathing was fine, not labored or panting, I wasn't getting tired towards the end of the running segments, I was kind of itching to run again by the time the walk segments were done. So apparently I like running now! I was pretty excited when I realized it because that should make going forward a lot easier. I was pretty proud of myself, too. I'm even looking forward to getting up Wednesday and Friday mornings to go run. Weird!! Friday's run is a five minute warm-up, 20 minutes straight of running, then a five minute walking cool-down. Yikes. I talked to my friend Michelle at the gym today, and she said that she and Jen ran four miles yesterday, they'd run a mile then walk a quarter mile. So if Michelle can do that, I should be able to run 20 minutes straight right? I'm just worried I'm going to get bored running in my neighborhood. Since it's still dark when I go I like to stay inside the confines of my neighborhood so I'm a bit safer, but 20 minutes straight running through the streets here might get boring. Maybe I'll try a new route to liven things up a bit.

workout fail

It's Sunday afternoon. I haven't been to the gym since Wednesday and haven't gone running since Tuesday. I feel fat and out of shape already. There were extenuating circumstances involved...a big freeze came through and I didn't want to go running when it was 20 degrees with a wind chill taken into account. If I had cold weather running gear I wouldn't mind, but I don't. Then Friday my oldest had a stomach bug, so I couldn't very well go to the gym. Our weekend has been busy, so I haven't gotten any exercise. I had been doing so well with sticking to my c25k running program, but I think I may have to start this past week's runs over again since it will have been almost an entire week when I finally go run tomorrow. Although even that's up in the air because now my husband has the stomach bug. Since I go at the ass crack of dawn maybe it won't be an issue since everyone is still usually sleeping when I leave.

Here's to a new week and getting back on track!