This is it! One week left until I run my first half marathon.
I did my last long run on Saturday and it went really well. I’d like to give a shout out to my mom for preparing the perfect night-before dinner – pasta with homemade tomato sauce, meatballs and garlic bread. My mom was pretty shocked when I requested white pasta for dinner
On Saturday’s run, I ran faster than my usual pace and hit the 10 kilometre mark at exactly 1:00 (it usually takes me about 1:05). I finished the full route (18 km) in 1:59:44, so I’m feeling pretty confident (although still a little nervous) about next Sunday.
One concern I have is that I didn’t exactly recover under ideal conditions after Saturday’s run. A good friend of mine was celebrating her birthday with dinner and drinks followed by a night of clubbing downtown. I probably should have left after dinner but I didn’t want to be lame / let my friend down. So I continued on to the club, danced for four hours in ridiculously uncomfortable shoes, drank (at least I had enough sense to drink in moderation) and got about three hours of sleep. Based on that experience, I would say that training does not mix well with girls’ nights outs.
I tried to compensate for Saturday’s foolishness with a day of sensible eating yesterday and lots of rest (I took the day off from the gym and got a solid 9 hours of sleep, plus some nap time in the day).
The plan for this week is to eat clean and eat a lot (I might even post daily eats to hold myself accountable), get 7-8 hours of sleep every night and take it easy on the exercise front. Here’s what I’m anticipating this week in exercise will look like:
Sunday – rest
Monday – Body Flow
Tuesday – 5 km
Wednesday - Yoga
Thursday – 8 km
Friday + Saturday – rest
Compared to last week:
Sunday – RPM
Monday – 11 km
Tuesday – 5 km
Wednesday – Body Pump
Thursday – 5 km
Friday – rest
Saturday - 18 km
Question of the day: Do you ever find it difficult to balance your social life with either your training / healthy habits?
![IMG_0110[1]](http://burningitoff.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/img_01101.jpg?w=150)
Haha my social life totally gets in the way of workouts sometimes. But honestly, I’m kind of ok with that. I’ll definitely look back and remember the times I spent with friends more than I’ll look back and remember a session on the elliptical.
I think that’s why I haven’t been able to sign up for a real training plan or anything. The truth is, I’m never going to be a hardcore athlete! But I am going to go dancing whenever I Feel like it!
I completely agree that spending time with friends/loved ones is way more important than a workout. When I first signed up for the half, I didn’t have a full-time job so I really didn’t think training would cut into my weekends or have any effect on my social life. Normally, I don’t even consider the effect that late nights and drinking will have on my workouts and while I admire people who are that dedicated to their fitness goals, I could never be that strict ALL of the time. I’m looking forward to getting out of ‘training’ mode and just working out for fun again.
Better it be this Saturday rather than the next!
Way to skim 5 minutes off your 10km time!
Haha, very true although it would have definitely made for an interesting race recap post — “How to run a half marathon after partying all night!”