Training Update

As of today, I am in the middle of my 8th week of half marathon training. The race is 87 days away.

I almost always get my runs in on the lakefront path near my house. I see a lot of the same people out there, people who are sticking to their routines just like I am. We wave to each other and push on.

Last week’s three runs were slightly different though: I did those while sailing through the middle of the Gulf of Mexico on a cruise ship.

Yes, you read that right. Uncle Jeff, Cub, and I actually went on a week-long cruise together last week. Don’t worry; I’ll have a few cruise recap posts coming up later this week and next, but I first wanted to update y’all on my training.

For the first two days of the trip, I thought I wouldn’t be able to get any running in at all. I suddenly started feeling horribly around 5pm the day we left. I spent all evening in my bed, skipped dinner, and tried to figure out what the heck was going on with me. I spiked a fever and got really bad chills. I ended up sleeping for almost 12 hours.

Luckily, I woke up fever-free and feeling slightly better. I decided to give my Monday run a try. I made it through it (running outside on the deck 12 jogging track, dodging people the whole way), but it was probably a bad idea to push myself so soon after feeling so bad. I just couldn’t shake the unsettled feeling.

However, when we pulled into our first port the next morning, I felt pretty good. And I continued to feel just fine for the rest of the trip. Hallelujah!

I had to move my Wednesday run since we were in another port that day, but I got it in on Friday. That time I went down to deck 5 since it circled the whole ship and wouldn’t be quite as crowded. Unfortunately, some of the crew were cleaning a portion of that deck, so I couldn’t run a full circuit. Plus most of the open sections were in full sun. Boo.

I knew if I was going to attempt to get my long Saturday run in, I would have to do it inside on one of the treadmills in the ship’s gym. For one, because it would be cooler. And for two, because my RunKeeper tracking program was totally picking up the fact that I was running on a moving ship and therefore was not at all accurate. I knew I wasn’t averaging a pace under 3 minutes and running a total of 14 miles in under 45 minutes. When I first heard my stats come through during my run on Monday, I was super confused. But then I figured it out and had to laugh. Too funny.

Bottom line, I needed the treadmill’s distance calculator so that I would know how far to go. My training schedule dictated that I needed to run 6 miles that day, my longest run ever. Ever.

I had a little trouble figuring out how to program the treadmill, and it actually stopped after my first 15 minutes or so. But I eventually figured it out and went a total of 7 miles. SEVEN MILES. And it felt freaking fantastic! My legs felt great, my breathing was calm and steady, I totally could have kept going. But the boys were waiting on me for breakfast, so I finally left the gym after an hour and 41 minutes. I was so proud of myself.

Getting back to my lakefront path this week was great. The humidity was down, there was a breeze in the air, and I had brand new shoes on my feet.

Life is good, y’all.

I CAN do this.