Hello there, it's great to be back. I was just looking over my last post from September 2011 (yikes, 2011?) and was thinking about how much has changed. First, and most important in my life, we had a new baby girl, N, born on February 12, 2012. Of course she's 13 months old now but she's still our little baby. She's not walking yet and still has rubber legs when we try to get her to stand up but we don't mind. She loves being held, especially by Mama, and we're lucky if we can set her down for 5 minutes before she tracks us down and wants to be picked up. Sometimes, after dinner, I set her down in the living room while I try to clean up and do dishes. If I'm lucky enough to set her down without her wanting to be picked back up, I'll be at the sink and feel someone tugging on my pant leg. There's little N with her hands up wanting to be picked up. I love it!
What else has changed? Oh, the Broncos traded away Tim Tebow and picked up some guy name Peyton Manning. I'm still not completely over the loss to Baltimore in the playoffs although the free agent moves this off-season (specifically the signing of Wes Welker) have me looking forward to football season again.
Last week I received an email from a friend (Angie's cousin's husband) with the subject "*Vegas." My first thought was "Vegas? I'm in!" and then about 0.5 seconds later I thought "Hmmm, why the *?" As soon as I opened the email I saw the reason for the asterisk. I need to run the Vegas half marathon in order to receive an official invitation. A half marathon. 13.1 miles. The distance I drive to work each day. Running.
My friend is contemplating a guys weekend in Vegas that will revolve around the half marathon. The good news is that the race isn't until mid-November. The bad news is that the race is only 8 months away. I've never been a runner. I've wanted to be a runner. As I drive back after going through the Taco Bell or Wendy's drive-through I see those attractive, thin, fit, seemingly happy people jogging along the side of the road and I think to myself (while stuffing french fries in my mouth) "I bet this cheeseburger, fries, and frosty would taste so much better if I had just finished a nice 5-6 mile run." That thought lasts until I get back to my office and start stuffing my face and is replaced by the thought "I should have ordered some chicken nuggets."
Anyway, I like to challenge myself (mainly because I love numbers and tracking stats) so I have decided to start the couch to 5k program using the Active.com mobile app. If successful I plan on moving to the 5k to 10k program. If that goes well and I'm comfortable running 6.2 miles, I will see how I feel about going to the half marathon distance. I probably could have skipped a few weeks but I decided to start at the very beginning and today completed workout 1 of week 1! I think I will like this program because the first 6 weeks basically combine walking and jogging and that's how I can see myself completing a half marathon. My goal right now would be to complete the half marathon in 3 hours using a combination of walking and jogging. If I were to alternate jogging a mile and walking a mile with an average pace of 10 min/mile (jogging) and 18 min/mile (walking) then 13.1 miles would take approximately 3 hours. I'm interested to see how these numbers change as I move further along in the program.
I'll try to update after every workout, or at least after every week, to let you know how it goes. I'm a bit nervous about how my knees will hold up as they both crack and crunch anytime I go up/down steps. If I can do it you can too!
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