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It has been 4 weeks since my last confession.  I made a Chinese New Year’s Resolution to a) sign up for a half-marathon (check!) and b) actually train for said half-marathon.  I am unhappy to report that during the first 5 weeks of the year I was doing really well at the training bit; but for the last 4 weeks, um, not so much.  (And by “not so much,” I mean “I’ve maybe gone running twice,” and by “running,” I mean “leisurely walk around the block”.) 

Yesterday, that all changed.  I did a 4-mile run/walk yesterday, and it nearly killed me!  Forty-five blocks of uphill terrain… after a while even the downhill bits feel like they are uphill.  My neighborhood is situated at the base of a mountain, and the streets are more-or-less terraced as you head upwards; in several places the city has forgone traditional sidewalks for actual staircases.  What does all this mean?  Precisely this: I can hardly walk because my calves are killing me. 

However, my half-marathon is coming up!  I’ve got just over 5 weeks to get my butt into half-marathon mode and the rest of me (read: my attitude) ready and willing to actually complete the race.  I am not trying to set any records; I just want to finish.  I looked up a couple of training schedules; and most of them are 16-18 weeks of daily activity…again, I’ve got five weeks.  This will require my kicking some serious butt; specifically, my own.  I have a running buddy, someone who also signed up weeks and weeks ago and has hardly started her training.  We are now official members of Team Kick-My-Own-Butt; we have regular meetings (Saturday morning breakfast) and scheduled time-tables of activity (must log the miles!).  Hey, we may even get T-Shirts! 

You know how announcing something to friends (or strangers; hello strangers!) will usually make you more apt to stick to that goal?  Yeah, that’s what this is; my half-marathon confessional.  I’ve got a not-quite-so-strenuous-as-a-four-mile-uphill-run training scheduled for today; and then tomorrow I’m back to thrashing my own calves. 

11 March Re-Resolution: commit to daily training program to prepare for half-marathon.  Sign up for another race later in the year to instill another reason to adhere to training program post half-marathon (Race Date: April 19, Yikes!).

 So let it be written.  So let it be done.