Wine & Dine Training Begins!

I know that "official" Wine & Dine training began like a month ago, but "official" training also has the last run as 14 miles, and I just don't see that happening. And by "official", I mean for those that subscribe to the Jeff Galloway training plan.

 

I don't tend to follow plans very well because I'm lazy, but I actually started training on Sunday. I went with a few friends up to the mountains in Prescott, AZ, to get out of the heat and do some hiking, which in my mind, counts as training.

And since all training must include a selfie (at least that's what I've learned from Instagram), here is my pre-hike selfie:

This is before it started pouring...

The weather in Prescott is at least 20 degrees cooler that Phoenix, so our hike started out beautifully. We also don't have a whole lotta trees in Phoenix, so we were excited to have some shade.

This is before it started pouring.

I guess the dark clouds should have been a clue rain was coming.

We hiked about a mile and a half before it started to drizzle. Not to be deterred by a few measly rain drops, we continued for awhile so that our hike would be about 4 miles.

About 2 miles in, it started pouring. No joke. Torrential rain. I don't have any pictures of the rain because I didn't want to ruin my phone, but trust me, we were soaked.

 

We ended up jogging a good portion of the way back since it was raining, so I figure that also counts as training.

So training run #1 is done. Put me down for 4 miles.

Who else is going to Wine & Dine? I'm super excited since people seem to really love this race and I've never done it.

 

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Cooked In Arizona

This weekend was going to be the start of my training for the Wine & Dine Half Marathon in November. I was actually even pumped to start training, if you can believe it. I think the excitement has much more to do with the fact that I'm NOT training for a full marathon over the summer for the first time since 2011 than the actual training for a race itself.

Then this happened:

The low was like 90 or something.

For the last several weeks, I had been focused on getting ready for a horse show we were going to in Del Mar, CA. While I had intentions of starting training before we left, I couldn't quite get my focus in that direction. I put all my energy into the show, but decided I would get my running groove in gear when I got back.

Good grief, whyyyyyyyy???

At least Del Mar was fairly nice. And it was nice for the horses to get a break from the desert heat, but coming back to these temperatures was certainly less than motivating to begin half marathon training. And truthfully, it's somewhat dangerous to work too hard in that kind of heat. This morning, I left my house and it was 86 and I actually felt a difference. It was a lot less oppressive. I think the humidity has dropped, making it more tolerable.

Del Mar was a success! (Not so humble brag!)

 

So yeah, there was no way I was running in that. I thought about running later on Saturday night, but it was still like 105 at 9:00 PM. And then I just lost the will to live will to go running.

But don't fret! I didn't throw in the towel entirely! I found some daily exercise routines on Pinterest and I've been pretty darn good at getting them done, if I do say so myself! Okay, so it's only been three days, but it's something. I also went to Sprouts and bought all sorts of healthy foods to fuel my running. Going to the actual grocery store like an adult equals #winningatlife for me.

I don't have another horse show until mid October, so I can get a lot of running training in to rebuild my base, which has terribly deteriorated since I haven't run a race since Star Wars Half in January.

It feels good to be excited to run again. I think I needed a break. I gotta say, though, it's really easy to start packing on pounds when you aren't running a lot.

Also, drinking Coke doesn't help, and I rarely drink it at all these days, but I couldn't pass up on this one, right?

Don't mind my super cool outfit.

 

 

 

 

 

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