It has begun...

"Now if you are going to win any battle you have to do one thing. You have to make the mind run the body. Never let the body tell the mind what to do. The body will always give up. It is always tired in the morning, noon, and night. But the body is never tired if the mind is not tired."
- George S. Patton, U.S. Army General, 1912 Olympian

I have been on hiatus from this blog. I stopped blogging my runs because I have been extremely busy keeping up our family blog, and I honestly think that no one reads this blog. Well, my sister made the comment the other day that she misses reading my posts about running. So...here is another post! I'm hoping to blog about my runs every Sunday. That way I can update how my week went.
Well...it has begun! The official training for my half marathon started a couple of weeks ago. I am now on week three and things are going pretty good. I have to admit that the first week and a half of training were horrible! I think my body and mind decided to play tricks on me. Pre-training for me had been going really well. I even hit 8.5 miles on one of my long runs. When my first 3 miler came the first week of training, my body was fighting to finish. I couldn't believe it. I had been running 3 mile runs, 3 times a week for multiple weeks. Why was it so difficult? My two other 3 milers that first week were just as difficult. I was starting to feel discouraged but I wasn't going to give up. I know I CAN do this. It is going to take a lot of motivation and dedication to finish, but I can do it. Last week went a little better, and it seems my long runs are usually my best runs. I was hoping that running would start getting easier, but it hasn't. That's ok though. I feel so good after each run that I don't want to give up. I'm going to keep pushing forward.
I found this great quote {at the top of the post} a couple of weeks ago and it completely motivated me! It is SO true. My body always wants to give up! There are multiple times during my runs that I have to tell myself to keep going...you can do this...don't stop...and my mind takes over and keeps pushing. Yesterday I hit my fastest time for a 3 mile run. I was so excited! I'm still an extremely slow runner, but that's ok with me. I don't really have a time in mind that I want to finish the race in. I just want to finish.
Many of my friends this past week ran in the Salt lake Half and Full Marathon. I wasn't able to be there to cheer any of them on, but hearing their stories and seeing their pictures really helped motivate me. I am getting really anxious for June to come. I just hope and pray that I can finish and not kill over and die! Because a lot of times that's how I feel! I only have 7 1/2 weeks to go until the big day. I am really nervous about the difference in elevation. A couple of weeks ago I ran up in East Canyon, and I had a really hard time breathing. Bear Lake is 200 ft above East Canyon, so it really makes me nervous. We are planning on going up to Bear Lake for Memorial weekend, so I am going to do a practice run up there. It will almost be like running the race because I'm supposed to run 12 miles that Saturday. Hopefully it will go better than expected!
If any of you have any advice on training, nutrition while training, or race day, I would really appreciate it! Here's to 7 1/2 more weeks of great running!

Last weeks runs:

Monday: 3 miles
Wednesday: 4 miles
Thursday: 3 miles
Saturday: 6.5 miles

Weekly milage: 16.5 miles