7 Days...

Hey everyone!

Today I completed day 7 of my runners world challenge... It felt good to be able to think about the fact that I had ran at least a mile every day for a week. Most days, I've been able to stay pretty motivated to run, which for me, is quite surprising.

Yesterday I did the longest run I've done so far in this training cycle. I ran with one of my good friends at a local park. We ran about 3.5 miles. It felt very good and I was able to maintain a pace around 11 minute miles for the whole run. She definitely tried to push me at the end, as I myself had already kicked up the speed a notch, but in the end she left me in the dust lol. However, it still felt like a great run, and I'm so glad I have her to run with to push me! It will be great for my training!

Today's run I decided to focus a bit more on my speed. While I'm not planning on going crazy fast to will any races or anything, I would like to keep getting faster and pull in a time of around 2:30 at the Princess half. Usually my pace has been around 10-11 minute miles. Today I kicked it up a bit and did one 9:30 mile. It was definitely by no means easy... But, I did it. I felt good that I set a goal and was able to meet it.

Next weekend, I have my first 5k of the year. It's on Saturday and is my local Susan G Komen race for the cure. I'm hoping to get a PR this weekend. My best 5k so far has been around 33 minutes. This weekend I'm hoping to do it in around 30 minutes, which is why I'm planning on trying to maintain a pace of around 9:30 for all my runs this week. We will see how it goes, and hopefully I'm able to accomplish it! This is one of the first races I've actually had a decent amount of training before (and yes, I know it's only going to have been 2 weeks, that's how sporadic my running was before), so I'm hoping that will help me run a PR.

I've been thinking a lot about the princess half marathon in February, and am getting really excited for it! There are times when I wish it was sooner, although I know I'm going to need all this time to get myself ready. I have read a lot online and have learned a lot of great ideas! One of my favorites is to put aside a $1 for every mile you run to save up for the trip. This is such a great idea! Money for me with being in med school and mostly living off loans is tough, so this will be one great way to try and put some aside upfront. Someone else also suggested cutting out things like buying your daily coffee in the morning and instead making it at home. Another great tip. Something else I thought was very motivating was to keep track of where your longest runs each week would have gotten you to looking at the route map. This sounds great! It is such a great way to look at how far you have come and what cool things you would have already seen with that run distance.

I recently heard about a whole new fantasyland that is in the works at Disney world set to open later this year. How exciting is that! I'm really hoping they incorporate it into the route so we can see the new stuff while running. Anyone know anything about this?

I'll be back next week to report again on how my trainings been going and to recap my race! Have a great week and happy running!

Jennifer