1/2 Marathon Training: Week 2

I am starting to feel much stronger and really focused on finding my pace this week. I was able to successfully complete all of my runs including that dreaded 4 mile run on Sunday! I did so much better than last week and this was after spending the weekend in Chicago consuming lots of food and beer! We opted to go in the evening this time - I'm finding this is key in July in St. Louis - and it made such a difference. I didn't stop once during the entire 4 miles and while I was definitely tired at the end, I kept my breathing under control the whole time and maintained a steady pace - not a fast pace but one that I feel I can sustain. Slow and steady wins the race, right?

This week I also introduced a new running partner to my training, the Garmin Forerunner 205.

An early birthday present from my parents, this watch gives me what I've been missing from the treadmill. Numbers! It not only times my runs and shows me my distance, but it shows me my current and best pace as well as calories burned. It has tons of other features that I am still figuring out. There are alerts that can be set for distance/laps, you can enter courses, and there is even a virtual training partner to race against. I am certain that this will help me immensely. It stores my runs so I can see how/if I'm progressing each week and even came with software that allows me download everything to my computer and analyze the data. I've only used it twice but so far I love it!

Up to this point, I have been primarily running on the track at the nearby high school. I thought this would be an easier way to transition to outdoor running then heading straight out to a park or neighborhood where uneven pavement, hills and traffic are all factors. I also liked the fact that I knew exactly how far I was running based on the number of laps I did. Now that I feel comfortable running outside and have my trusty Garmin to track distance, I'm ready to change it up and plan to go to a park tomorrow for my run. I'm ready for a change of scenery and not just going around in circles! Two weeks down, 10 weeks to go til race day!