22 More Days to Go!

That’s right – 22 more days to go until the Urban Cow Half Marathon. It’s GO time people.

My training has been back on track the last 2 weeks and I’m feeling OK. For the last few weeks I’ve been battling tight hamstrings and lower back issues. I can’t remember my hamstrings ever being this tight…it was difficult to touch my toes!

After some regular sessions of stretching (which I need to do more of!) and using Dr. Pain aka the foam roller (can you say OUCH!) I was back to normal. So I’m glad to be feeling much better and it turned out I didn’t have to take a break from training because I had no pain when I was working out. Weird, huh?

Also wanted to share that I squeezed in a run in while I took my car in for an oil change. Dropped the car off and then went for a nice 5 mile run, getting back to the dealership in time to pick up my car and drive home. Have to admit I never thought about doing that before and it was a good use of my time plus no one had to pick me up then drop me off. Yes, I got some looks from people when I went in to pay – it was really hot so I probably didn’t look that great after my run – but I tried to look like I didn’t care.

If you’re on Facebook be sure to “friend” Hal Higdon. Not only am I following his workout plan for the half marathon but I love reading his tips everyday.

My favorite “Tip of the Day” so far are:

Ease into your daily workouts and pick up the pace only when you begin to feel comfortable. Johnny Kelley, who completed 58 Boston Marathons and won two of them, started each daily run by walking. You think that's a tip only for old-timers? Kelley used a slow start even when in his 20s.

With so many gadgets now on the market from GPS watches to heart rate monitors along with training programs such as mine which tell you how far and how fast to run on any given day, I sometimes feel we think too much. On at least a few days, leave the gadgets in the drawer and just go out and run at whatever pace for whatever distance feels right on that particular day.

Lastly, here are some new songs that I am really enjoying while running:
Mine by Taylor Swift
If I Had You by Adam Lambert
Club Can’t Handle Me by Flo Rida
Stuck Like Glue by Sugarland

Happy Running,
Suzanne