Ron The Runner

All of my bitching and complaining about nothing being close to me well finally a race in my own backyard ! The First ever Higgins Lake Sunrise Run (Half Marathon, 10k, 5k 1 Mile fun run) I am so excited, it's in a beautiful area right next to one of the best lakes in the country.

Info taken from active.com

I decided on a half marathon and it's 5 weeks away! I know I can run that distance the question is what time can I do it in? Ideally I want to finish in 2 hours or less, with 5 weeks to train I am not so sure that's possible. I used the runners world smart coach to come up with a plan. Below is the plan I came up with, it feels like it's possible for me to run that plan, not easy but possible...

I have two races on my schedule so far March 27th and one on June 19th.

http://www.active.com/running/flushing-mi/flushing-township-half-marathon-and-5k-runwalk-2010

http://higginslakesunriserun.com/

One week of not smoking and back to running complete, I ran 13.1 miles total this week. A long way for the 35+ miles a week I was averaging but not bad considering. I had a total of 5 runs and I dreaded every one of them. I miss the days when running was fun and I had to force myself to take a rest day. If I can't find a way to make it fun again I won't be doing it much longer, maybe as the weather improves I can find some trails to run on and if I am lucky a running partner! I think that's to much to hope for, we are the 5th fattest state in the nation here, something like that anyway...

Any sugestions for making it fun again ?

As some of you may know I am an ex-smoker. I had not smoked since august, recently I had a little break with reality and smoked for a week. During that week I tried running but two miles was the most I could manage. On wednsday I decided to quit (again) I ran that day wearing my HR monitor as always. I ran very slow 5.2 mph, at mile one my HR was 170 bpm, by mile two it was near 180 bpm. That night I had my last smoke, Thursday I ran 3 miles. I ran at a faster pace 5.5 mph, at mile one my HR was only 150 bpm, by mile three it was at 158 bpm. In just one day of not smoking my pace was faster, my distance was further, and my HR had dropped nearly 20 bpm. If you ever wonder just how big of an imact smoking can have on running there it is...

Here I am half a week into my fitness/weight loss plan. I have dropped 3 pounds since monday, which I expected I have been doing two walks per day (it's the activity I enjoy most) I did a couple runs but I'm not really worried about the running, right now I am still smoking (that ends after tonight) That totally kills the runs 2 miles tops with the smoking and even that is a struggle. I got my stop smoking pills today and wont smoke as of tomorrow morning. I have done it before and for me the first day is the hard part, if I can make it through one day I am good to go!

I have avoided seeing "the woman" though I did drop something off for her tonight with a friend. I am doing much better without that distraction and the added stress it brings. Maybe I'm just not ready to go there yet, maybe we just need to go slower. I don't know, but for now I am right where I need to be re-focused on my fitness and health, setting goals and moving towards them again.