20 weeks

20 weeks from today it will be Sunday May 17th.  Not usually a notable date in my life, but this year it will be.

After a lot of thought, soul searching and discussions with Hilary, I have decided to train for the Recharge With Milk Half Marathon that is part of the Blue Nose* weekend!

* For my non-Nova Scotia friends, "Blue Nose" is a nickname for Nova Scotians, dating back to the 18th century.

I have set up a 20 week training program that has me running 4 times a week, with long runs on Sundays.  Most of my weeknight runs will be under an hour, which is good, since I don't get home from work till after 5:00.

I've never run more than 10 kms before and have just gotten back into running, so training to run 21.1 kms is a bit daunting.  My first long run that surpasses 10 kms is only 5 weeks away!  There are a few obstacles to the training plan that I will have to work around - the biggest one being that we will be in the Domincan Republic for March break (otherwise known as week 11), and I may have some travel coming up for work. It's not to say that I can't run while I'm away, it will just present some unique challenges.

Halifax is also a very hilly city and so far I have manage to run on nice flat routes.  I'm going to have to start adding some hill work to my runs, especially since kms 15-21 for the 1/2 are a slow but steady climb.

So there we have it. Year one of running I did my first 5k.  Year two of running I did my first 10k.  So it only holds to reason that in my third year I aim for my first 1/2 marathon! I'm just going to giv'er!