Mostly for my own memory.

I mapped another 3-mile run out for this morning. Its hardly different, but slightly and since I have at least one run at that distance every single week, I'd better map them all out.

So, we (my two friends who are also following the same training plan as I am) have surpassed the half-way mark to race day, as of this past Saturday. Hooo-ray! For me, the milestone was that (is that) I ran Saturday's workout at a pace that I would find acceptable come race-day. The real distance was 6.5 miles and my total time came to 55min. making my pace 8:27. The last (and only other) half marathon I completed I went at about 8:29 pace. My ultimate goal is to go faster than that, but I have been trying to pace consistently faster than that, especially in the past two weeks of my training. I've run some of my 3-4 milers as fast as 7:34 pace...to about 8:10. And, I've been doing my speed-work quite a bit faster...on accident at first, but nonetheless, faster.

And most importantly, I've realized two things in the last 6 weeks of training.
1. keep a journal of some sort of your training. I have known this, but was recently reminded of its significance. If you pay attention to that, you'll discover some really cool things about yourself. (right now, google calendar is keeping my WHOLE life in order-including my running)
2. pay attention to what your body is telling you-to what you feel. this can be helpful especially if you're keeping a good training log and if you've never really trained before.
3. (ok, there's three) find a good running or training buddy. For one, its nice to at least be able to check in with someone once in a while. (my running buddy is new at this and has recently started calling me "coach" which i think is adorable). Also, once you find a good running buddy, you'll know it and that's a pretty awesome thing!