My 40th birthday came and went this month without much fanfare.  I am well on my way to achieving my goal of being thin but I didn’t hit the date I had in my mind (my actual birthday).  I have been a bit down about it for the last few weeks but now I’ve decided to just focus on the next goal.

I set one of my goals for this year to run a half marathon.  So, now that it is getting closer, I can set my sights on training for that and that should keep me motivated for another few months.

The half marathon is in mid-September so now is the time to get started.  I ran a 5K today during lunch to kick things off.

Now I need a schedule to follow.  The go-to-guy is Hal Higdon, and his half marathon schedule is located here:  http://www.halhigdon.com/halfmarathon/index.htm.  Since I’m already able to run 10Ks, I’m going to use the Intermediate level plan.  Also, I’m going to skip ahead to week 2, since my race is 11 weeks away.

According to this plan, I need to run 3 miles on Saturday and 5 on Sunday.  I think that’s reasonable.  I think what scares me is when it starts getting above my comfort zone of 6 miles.  I haven’t yet ran 7 miles.   I guess I won’t worry about that for another two weeks (according to the schedule).

Setting this goal has been an important step for me to refocus my energy.   I have definitely lost a little drive after having a sustained focus for nearly 6 months straight.  I needed to take a break (while being careful to not undo any good I had done) but now I feel refreshed and ready to sprint to the finish line.  I’m so close I can taste it.     Only 23 pounds to go before I am within my healthy weight range.  Woohoo.

Once I get there, I’ll try to figure out how far I should go down within that range.  I’m guessing 130 will be too thin and hard to maintain.  Maybe I’ll settle in at 145?  I don’t know but it will be fun to find out!