half marathon training week #1...down

On Tuesday I mentioned that my run kicked my butt and I wasn't sure if my Garmin was right since I lost signal in a couple of places. Now, I'm pretty sure it was right because I was so winded afterwards. And, my Tuesday pace was definitely fast for me at 8:48, which explains why I was so winded.

I ran two miles on Thursday as well and finished at a pace of 9:07. My elliptical was FINALLY delivered on Thursday night and Coach spend about a total of 5 hours putting it together on Thursday and Friday....he's awesome! It's pretty massive and heavy duty. I tried it out on Friday for my cross training workout and did a 30 minute interval workout. It was a good full body workout and I definitely feel like throwing those cross training days in my training plan will be worth it.

Today was my first "long" run for my half marathon training. I had to run four miles, so I opted to run all hills since the mileage was short. It was tough in some places, but I actually felt pretty good the entire time. I did 4.18 miles in 37:47 for an average pace of 9:02. Not too shabby. So overall, I've been very pleased with my pace this first week and I hope that I can keep it up throughout the training. If so, I'll easily PR the STL half.

Tomorrow is a rest day, but I may end up doing an elliptical workout...we'll see. I'm also going to see the movie Dear John tomorrow, which I've been dying to see. I love ALL Nicholas Sparks movies/books!

This morning I started my day volunteering at this event called Cinderella's Closet. It's where girls in and around my community can shop for prom dresses that have been donated. It was so much fun seeing those girls in their prom dresses and seeing their face light up when you tell them how beautiful they looked! It's sad because a lot of them seemed to be shy, quiet and probably have low self-esteem. So, it felt really good to see them realize how pretty they looked in their gowns. It was such a fun event.

Hope everyone had great long runs today!