La Jolla Half Marathon Training Update

As I mentioned in a previous post, it has been a long time since I have seriously exercised. So long, in fact, that after telling my wife that I had entered the event, she asked me if the race committee had sent their "Thank You for the Donation" letter yet... she has serious doubts that I will be there on race day. She also suggested that I do NOT go out unless I wear sweat pants... she does not want me to be held responsible for blinding anyone that may have the misfortune of looking in the direction of my legs during daylight hours.

Tomorrow is the first day of my structured 14 week training routine. It has me running 5 days a week with the mileage slowly ramping up week after week until I am ready to do the 13 miles on April 27. With the little extra motivation of my wife's comments, for the better part of the last 3 weeks I have been doing a little jogging in an attempt to be ready for the regular 3 and 4 miles runs that begin this week.

I hesitate to call what I have been doing "running" because the pace has been so slow. I have come to think of it as a "Pigeon Pace" because, as I was jogging along one day, I came upon a flock of about 7 pigeons that were standing around eating something off of the ground. They were about 10 yards in front of me and as I closed in on the birds, I expected them to frantically run out of my path and take off in a panic. Instead, they just sort of walked out of my way and cleared a narrow path for me to pass through. As we all slowly waddled along, they just sort of looked over their shoulders at me with pity.... thus the "pigeon pace".

I have to say, however, that I am encourage by my progress to date. Although I do not think that I will be setting any new personal bests in April, I do know that I will be in much better shape and weigh a few pounds less by May. More updates to come with each milestone.