Hey everyone!

As I’ve mentioned before, I am currently in the middle of my half marathon training. I’m running the Indy Mini (which you can sign up for here) in May! It is seriously such a fun event. My mom and I have been doing the 5K for years while my dad ran the mini. Now, I am finally joining him for the half marathon. I am pumped and also really nervous!

I have tried and failed numerous times when it comes to running. Now that I am training again, I have realized that I had been going about it alllllll wrong. I was rushing it. I was adding too many miles and running too many days in the week for my body. Some people might be able to handle running 5+ days a week, but I am definitely not one of them. I get injured and burnt out. In high school, I suffered from plantar fascitis which is when the tendons in the bottom of your feet stretch and tear and make it difficult to even walk sometimes. I also suffer from a poor left hip which I just finished physical therapy for. I had been suffering for a while but decided to go to PT early on in my training so that I wouldn’t worsen it and have to stop training again. Turns out that I had some sort of trauma, most likely overuse, to my left hip and it never healed correctly. Instead of healing, a ton of scar tissue developed causing a knot the size of a ping pong to grow where my gluteal muscle meets the tendons and ligaments in my hip. Basically all of that caused so much tension in my hip that I could barely walk at times or even lay on my left side. But thanks to my AMAZING physical therapist, my hip feels pretty much brand new. I met with her once a week for a month and a half and then I just go whenever it feels like its tensing up again. I no longer get the sharp pains, and it hasn’t hindered my training process. Yay!

So after figuring all of that out, I’m back on track now with my training. A typical week for me looks like running on Mondays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. Sunday is my rest day, but I usually still go on a walk with Chance and do some stretching sessions. I also do 30-40 minutes of yoga every morning before work. Yoga with Adriene is my ABSOLUTE favorite. She has so many videos on YouTube, and I can do it right in my living room. I’m going to dedicate a whole post to yoga in the near future so I’ll cover it more then! 🙂

As for running, the first step is always the hardest. I truly believe that anyone can become a runner! You just have to put in the effort and be dedicated. In the beginning, I used the Couch to 5K program. It’s super useful! You can download the app, and they have multiple plans that can help you as you go through your running plan. It really helps keep you accountable. Once I was able to run a couple of miles, I started listening to my body more as I started increasing my mileage. Once I get further along, I’ll write out exactly how I advanced each week. When I first started out, there were times when I didn’t even think I’d be able to make it one mile. I am now up to 5 miles and feel great! I’m not miserable the whole time and actually feel like I’m building up some endurance. It’s an incredible feeling. My experience just shows that listening to your body is so important and following the right plan for YOU can truly make a huge difference.

Please leave any comments and questions you have below! I’ll be writing some more posts on running as well. This is just an intro to my journey. 🙂