ponderings of my heart: Thoughts on Running

Sooo... I just signed up for my first half marathon last week (!!!!!). So excited and nervous. For the past few years I have run a 5K every spring, but this year I am running the half.

So today I thought I would share a few thoughts on running, some quirky things that work for me when I run, some quotes, and a couple songs that I always listen to during the hard sections of every run. Any thoughts or tips you might have for running a half would be much appreciated!

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I've always run the 5K with my friend, and this year when our race had its annual sale, I asked her if she was going to do it. She said she was going to race, and was thinking about the half. I will admit to being skeptical at first, thinking of the lack of training I had put in the last few winters and knowing there's no way I could run 21km right now!

But we figured out that the reason I haven't likely trained the last few years is because training in the winter requires motivation, and if I can just run a 5K anyways without doing much training, why go out in the cold or suffer on the treadmill?? So because I now have a goal that I currently can't achieve, and I signed up for this race I can't subconsciously excuse myself from training.

And I will admit to always having the desire to run a half somewhere in the back of my mind, but there was another part of me that knows it's totally crazy and I needed my awesome friend to help me make this commitment. :)

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So this is the training plan that we're doing. Even though we're both already runners we are doing a couch-to-half plan because then we can ease into it ;)

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A couple of super random kind of weird things about me and running:

A piece of minty gum or a mint helps me to run better. I don't really know why, I think it has something to do with minty-ness making my breath feel fresher, making it easier to breathe or feel less yucky or something, and it gives me a really small easy jaw movement to half focus on. It's weird, I know.
For me, when I feel like I'm running slow, I do less walking, even if I'm actually running faster than usual. And if I'm running slower than usual but it feels faster, the desire to walk is greater. So I usually try to run fast and make it feel slow. lol ;)

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There are a few go-to songs that I put on when I feel like I need to walk, or right at the end to help me finish well, right now, the very best one is My Lighthouse, by Rend Collective.