Oof. I know I’ve been MIA from the blogosphere. I did not realize how all consuming working two jobs at Christmas would be. I’ll still be working two jobs after Christmas but I won’t have to spend all my free time getting everything done for a particular day. This is why Christmas drives me nuts. It’s not about spending time with family. It’s a list of stuff you have to do for the people you love. And I do love them. But it’s so. Much. Work. This is why, in my heart, Thanksgiving wins on the holiday front.

Anyways. I’m in week 7 of my training plan. Following this path I’ll be ready to run a half marathon on April 14^th, but the race I want to run (actually run this time, not bail on at the last second) is May 12^th. So I’ll be repeating 4 weeks somewhere in there. I’m still dong run/walk intervals. Though the running is now 4x the walking so we’re getting pretty close to all running. I think those are the weeks I’m going to repeat. I’m hoping those extra weeks will let me whip my mental game into shape. That’s the hardest part for me right now. Pushing through. So far, though, this training plan has been enough to get me to push. Even when my body is screaming “please for the love of all things fitness related no more v-ups”. As part of this plan I’ve been granted 6 eff it days where I can just say “eff it. I don’t want to” and be completely guilt free. I’ve only used one in the first quarter of the training! That’s such a huge improvement over trying to train on my own. I guess paying for a training plan and then having a virtual “running club” in the form of an exclusive facebook group is what it takes. I was afraid that because all my new runner friends were virtual I’d lose motivation but so far I’ve only had a couple of runs that I haven’t wanted to run but I got out there because I don’t want to let down the group. And Nicole promises that if I stick to this plan, I can run a half marathon successfully in 2013. And for now, I choose to trust her, even if I don’t fully believe  it. Because right now? Running 4 minutes at a time is about all I can handle. Then again three weeks ago I said 2 minutes at a time was all I could handle. So maybe she does know what she talking about?!?! I don’t know. For now it’s head down, feet forward. Except that’s bad form. So, um, head up, feet underneath me?