Somehow I decided that finishing the Peachtree at a respectable pace meant I could do anything.
At first, I decided to make this the Fall of 5Ks. I'd decided to run a 5K in September, October, November, break for the holidays unless something piqued my interested, and then try the New Years 4 miler or Hot Chocolate 5K in January.
PERFECTLY. REASONABLE.
I planned to do speedwork and run a 30 minute 5K by January.
But then my dear friend, Jerod, started talking about his plans to run the Atlanta 10 Miler. You see, as an Atlanta Track Club member, he gets discounts on various races, and while he didn't have anything major on the horizon, he wanted to keep up his mileage.
So I thought - discounts on 5Ks AND guaranteed entry into the Peachtree next year? Sign me up! And now I'm a track club member. Me. A 30 year old adult who has never been anything resembling an athlete in her entire life - I've now paid my hard earned cashmoney to join a group of other people to run with our feet and legs and stuff. Me. Who as a teenager was on a softball team that forfeited or lost 9 out of 10 games in a season, and who was on the swim team, sure, but only ever swam in the exhibition lane during meets.
Yep. I'm now a grown adult human woman who puts sneakers on and moves her feet as quickly as possible for free t-shirts and/or medals.
So that was a big deal. But then Jerod kept talking about the 10 Miler. And then so did Eric's sister, Kate. And then this very nice gentleman at work talked to me about the Triple Peach. The Triple Peach is a race series which includes the Peachtree Road Race 10K, the Atlanta 10 Miler, and the Atlanta Thanksgiving Day Half Marathon. You get a medal for each race, and then they all combine to make on ginormous medal when you've completed it. Sort of like the Power Rangers Megazord, but without the sword and racist stereotypes.
Pictured: Not a race medal.
This coworker basically repeated things that Jerod said - if you can run 6 miles, you can run 10. And if you can run 10 miles, surely you can run 13.1.
So I finally agreed and signed up. I've basically been training for the last 2 weeks. My goal is get up to running 5 miles straight, but for longer runs and race days I plan to run/walk.
I've had mostly good runs for the last few weeks (with one glaring exception this past Tuesday). Both my speed and endurance are slowly increasing, so I'm kind of pleased with myself. I've been slack though. I know the only reason I was able to complete my Peachtree training without injury to my right knee is yoga. So much yoga. I started going regularly in March, and then signed up for and completed a 21 day challenge back in April/May. It was exhausting to incorporate into my training, but totally worth it. Since then though, I've only gone back to the studio occasionally, and it definitely won't be enough in the coming weeks when my mileage really starts to climb. So my goal in August, besides sticking to my running plan, is to re-incorporate yoga at least once week, but preferably twice. I love the yoga studio I was going to, but traffic to and from is such a deterrent that I've lost the motivation. There's a studio within walking distance from my house that I plan to try next week. Fingers crossed I like it.
So here's my race "calendar" for the rest of the year.
Sept 26 - Red Hare Chase 5K*
October 25 - Atlanta 10 Miler
November 26 - Atlanta Thanksgiving Day Half Marathon!
I'm also planning posts about my training plan, my fundraiser(!!) for SoleMates, and some lifestyle stuff - like more on meditation, decluttering and finding joy outside of material things.
*Oh, did I forget to mention? I left this 5K on the calendar to gauge my progress AND(!!!!!!) Eric is running it with me! I'm so excited!
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