Took a little bit of a break from posting after finishing the Trip Report. I've got my next race; one that I can really say for the first time is an A goal race. I will be running the Cleveland Rite Aid Half Marathon for a new PR, new PoT and, hopefully, a sub-2:00 time. I've run close to that time before, but it was a while and a lot of bad habits ago. I needed to put that goal out there and let everyone know that it is incredibly important to me because that is the only way accountability can be successful.
I know sub-2:00 isn't an incredible feat for someone my age. Nonetheless, I think it would be a great feat to attain such a time considering my current (lack of) fitness. The first phase of my plan is already in effect. I am running by time rather than mileage until the end of February. My schedule is:
Monday-Flexibility and Core
Tuesday-40 minutes easy
Wednesday-40 minutes speed
Thursday-Flexibility and Core
Friday-40 minutes easy
Saturday-1 hour mixed easy/hard
Sunday-1:30 easy
None of this is scientific. I have a long way to go losing weight and gaining muscle and stamina back and this schedule is built to ease my way into a more focused routine later in the training cycle. It seems to be going well so far.
My journey has been and always will be about getting healthier and being happier with my self image. I lost sight of that the last couple of years when I was viewing things through the lens of the relationships that I was still unable to form. It started to feel like it was all for nothing. A couple years floundering in those thoughts made me realize that I was happy just being healthier and more active regardless of whether it was influencing any new relationships. I've also realized part of finding that happiness was in achieving something like a sub-2:00 Half which has always been a bit of a white whale. Losing the sense of achievement and doing things just to say they were done became an unwanted theme of all of my races for the last couple of years and that made things such a slog. Time for that to end.