Training Tuesday – I’m back in the (running) game!

Oh, hi! It’s been a while since I’ve done a training Tuesday post. To be honest, I haven’t really trained for a race in a long while. Sure I’ve exercised, but I like to have goals and between pregnancy followed by sleepless nights with two kids, training for a long race has not been top of mind. 

I signed up for the Downhill at Dawn half marathon on New Year’s Eve. The price increased on 1/1, so I went ahead and saved a few bucks by committing in December. I love D@D and I’ve really missed it! The last time I ran it was in 2015. I had barely been released to exercise when the race took place in 2016, and my daughter decided not to sleep for most of 2017, but I’m determined to make 2018 my year! 

For Christmas, my husband gifted me a race registration for the Hot Chocolate 5k. This was the first year they’ve had the 5k option – I’ve run the 10k a few times in the past. It’s a great race, very well organized and you get hot chocolate at the end! They used to claim to be the flattest 10k in Asheville, which was true…but they still have a monster of a hill at the very end of the race. (Not even exaggerating. The hill is at least a quarter of a mile long. Brutal, I tell you.) So I ran that race this past weekend. I finished in 32:32 (I think?) and I don’t think that’s a bad time for my first 5k in a long time.

Leading up to the race, I’ve been running most days. I try to get between 1 and 3 miles of run/walk time in daily. And if I keep the run to 1 mile, I have been doing some weights. The first couple of weeks in January were tough between illness running rampant through my house, and I really just wasn’t motivated. The last week has been somewhat better. Even when we were snowed in, I would go for a walk (because I cannot run on ice.) 

Oh, and the plus side to running races? Donuts that night. 

I’m a huge fan of donuts. 😉 

So this week I’ve made it a goal to work out at least 3 times during lunch. Sunday was BEAUTIFUL, so I went for a short run to get some of the soreness out of my legs. I ran during lunch on Monday, and I have plans to do that again today. Depending on kid schedules the rest of the week, I’d love to run every day at lunch (and I think it’s do-able!) 

I have 4.5 months until my half marathon. I’m coming up with a training plan, and there’s a slight possibility I’ll do another half before the one at the end of May – it all depends on how training is going. 

Are you training for any races? I’d love to get another 5k in!