With less than 12 weeks until race day, half marathon training has officially begun. I wish I could say that all my pre-training preparation has set me up to slide right into my training schedule without much discomfort. But it hasn’t gone as easily as smoothly as I’d envisioned.
But, who’s judging? Certainly, not me.
Nope. I am simply assessing and evaluating. My conclusions are not huge eye openers. In fact, the younger Juls would not have been surprised by the added challenge of how I have taken on my runs. For example: Week 1 of my training began with three 3-mile training runs. One of these runs was to be done at a quicker “race” pace than I have been used to doing. I did these runs during my lunch break because, well I didn’t want to give up my morning yoga practice nor did I want to run in the dark. However, my body struggled with the hotter than usual weather this past week.
While I will likely continue to do my work-week training runs on my lunch hour, I will lace up and head out with a better idea of what I can expect on the road ahead. With any luck, my body will start to remember what it was like to run with ease. And maybe, just maybe, it will let go of the extra 15 pounds that it has refused to drop.
Then one day, I noticed the babies were growing strong enough to lift their beaks into view. I watched as momma came with food for them. The stronger bird always seemed to get the sustenance while the other one waited patiently. I prayed that I just wasn’t around to see when momma fed her other little birdie. I am sure that she did indeed feed both of them.
