Tentative 1/2 Marathon Training Plan

I am starting to get super focused on my 1/2 marathon...you know, the one that's next April.  Why so soon, you ask?  Because I'm pretty sure I need every damn day of the next 8 months to get ready for this goal of mine.  I am really excited, don't get me wrong, I'm just realistic about what it's going to take for me to be ready come April 6th, 2014.

I've given it some thought the past few days and I think I have a tentative training plan.  After I ran 1.1 miles straight last week, I pushed myself this week and increased my distance by .10 of a mile on Tuesday for a total of 1.2 miles.  I did the same increase tonight after work and ran 1.3 miles.  It was not easy and at about .3 of a mile in I didn't think I would make it (not sure what was going on, it was a little warm and my legs were stiff or something), but I pushed through and finished my goal of 1.3 miles.  I think if I continue to increase my distance by .10 of a mile every other day that I can be nearly race ready by April.  My other hope is that as I continue to lose weight (and build up my endurance) that perhaps I can increase my runs by more than .10 of a mile later this fall.  I'm going to see how it goes though.

My overall plan is to run 3x/week, cross-train 3x/week, and take a rest day each week.  I also need to incorporate strength training in the plan, too.  I'm a bit neglectful when it comes to strength training and I think it would do me a world of good.  I just need to make myself do it.

I had a pretty great non-scale victory yesterday that I forgot to share.  They were giving away some shirts at work yesterday and typically anytime we get shirts for work, I order a 2XL.  However, yesterday I asked for a few XL shirts to have as workout shirts and they fit!!!  They aren't loose by any means, but they fit by golly and I wore one on my run tonight.  I also figured out over the weekend that I've dropped 3 pant sizes since the first of the year.  In fact, most of my clothes are so baggy right now that they look a little slouchy.  I'm slowly buying clothes in smaller sizes, but I don't want to get too much since, in theory, this will just be a small stop on the weight loss train and hopefully smaller sizes are within reach (I'm looking at you size Medium shirts!  Someday!).

Do you have any suggestions for 1/2 marathon training?
Do you have any non-scale victories you'd like to share? 

"There is no one giant step that does it, it's a lot of little steps."