Starting anew...

After hitting my lowest mileage in a year last week (9 miles!), I realized that I need to rethink my training and dig deep for some serious motivation. Seeing the 2006 Miami Marathon highlighted on my calendar has been freaking me out. After recovering from hurting my ankle, my weekly mileage has been slowly but steadily declining. Now, January is right around the corner and I don't feel that I have it in me to train for and complete my first marathon.

I took the next best step to dropping out completely and switched over to the half marathon. Both 1/2's I was planning to run this year were disappointments. The Howie-in-the-Hills half was out of the question because of the hurricane and gas shortage. The A1A marathon has been postponed because of the hurricane until next February! There is one in December in Palm Beach that might be a possibility. But instead, I'm going to try to actually train for a half all over again, with my goal being to finish in under 2 hours.

I found a good half marathon training plan on www.runnersworld.com. I'm sticking with the beginner plan, even though I can easily run the 10 miles this plan leads up to. It emphasizes a variety of speed workouts, which I desperately need to fit in every week. And the mileage is low enough, for now, for me to not (1) feel overwhelmed, and (2) hurt myself again.

I start my new plan tomorrow!