Half Marathon Training has commenced

Guess who started her half marathon training today?  This girl!  I am feeling leaps and bounds better than last week and the weather was just gorgeous today, so I decided it was time to start training for my half.  It was supposed to get up to about 60 today and you can't beat that, given that it is January and this time last week we had about a foot of snow and temps below zero, so I headed out to my favorite trail for a 3 mile run.

#GettingItDone

The first mile felt great; unbelievably lovely, although parts of the trail were still covered in slushy snow (mainly in the shaded areas).  There were narrow foot paths through most of the slush, but only enough for one person to get through.  There were a lot of people out on the trail today (we've been cooped up for a long time, folks) and several times, I had to run through the slush to pass others on the trail.  I felt like I was Prancercizing and I'm sure it was comical to watch.  The second mile wasn't quite as glorious as the first, but it was manageable and fairly quick (for me).  The last mile was another story; it was a struggle and the last quarter of a mile was pretty brutal.  I was counting down the seconds until my app chirped 3 miles complete.

A beautiful day for a run 

I ended up doing 3.05 miles in 38:29 with an average pace per mile of 12:36.  Not too shabby considering I haven't run since mid-December.  As much as I struggled through the last part of my run, I felt really great afterwards and I'm so glad I made it a priority today to run.  I also got to try out a new running app today and I was very pleased.  It's no secret that I've been increasingly frustrated with my Nike+ app and the seeming inaccuracy on my recent runs, so I decided to give MapMyRun a try.  So far, I am impressed and I really liked the accuracy, as well as the notifications received after each mile, including distance, pace, and split times.  I'm anxious to try it again tomorrow for my scheduled 3 miles at lunch!

Since the weather was so nice today, after my run, I took the boys to the park for some outdoor fun.  The park was also incredibly busy and all of the kids there were having a great time running around and playing. There was still some snow at the playground, so Nick and Jack had fun picking up some of the snow and throwing it at the ground.  I'm hoping that we can have more of these milder days interspersed throughout the winter so we can avoid cabin fever like we had this week.

I officially signed up for the Stan Musial Veterans Memorial Bridge Run and I'm looking forward to it.  It will be my first race of 2014!  What is your first race for the year? 

"Every day is a new chance to run."