Weekly Fit Check: Second Half-Marathon

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Happy Leap Day! I hope you’re doing something to thoroughly enjoy this day that happens only once every four years.

We are. My husband took the first half of the week off work, and we took off school. Today we’ll be going to enjoy our annual trip to our favorite Japanese steakhouse – one of those places where the chef prepares the meal in front of you. Tasty and fun!

After that, we’re going to a matinee to enjoy a movie together. The whole family is looking forward to our day together.

On the weight-loss front, I’m still maintaining. I did show a small loss again this week – not enough to say that I’m breaking out of maintenance mode and into losing-the-last-ten-pounds mode, but it’s still fun to see a loss on the scale.

The highlight of my week was running my second half-marathon last Saturday. I knew, going in, that I wasn’t as prepared for this one as I was my first one. It’s hard to train in the winter when cold and rain often join forces to derail my training plan.

I was really hoping that I’d pull out a miracle and still beat my last time. I actually was on track for that to happen until Mile 8, when I got really tired. I got a bit of a second wind for Miles 9 – 11 weren’t too bad, but Miles 12 and 13 kicked my butt.

I finished with a gun time of 2:31:22 and a chip time of 2:30:59. That’s only three minutes slower than my last time, so I’m not too disappointed with it.

I wore the great shirt that I bought from One More Mile awhile back. The back says, “Dear God, please let there be someone behind me to read this.” I got tons of compliments on it. People loved it, just like I did when I saw it on someone at my first half-marathon.

The irony was not lost on me that all the compliments came from people passing me. {grin}

I even got passed by two guys who ran the half in military pants, combat boots, and 40-pound packs. Brian said they started out walking. I saw them several times. They would walk a bit, then, run a bit. They must have been moving on when they ran, though, because they passed me from way back and finished way ahead of me.

Brian went running with me on my recovery run on Monday. It was one of those times when I had to go run to work the soreness out. He didn’t run the whole time, but I appreciated that he made an effort to give it a try.

Yesterday, we took the younger two kids out to ride bikes in a local park (our oldest didn’t want to go). It was a gorgeous day – perfect for riding and unbelievable for February.

I was pleasantly surprised to find that Megan has finally gotten good enough in her riding skills to keep up. We didn’t set a hard, fast pace, but it was enough that I felt like I burned a decent amount of calories. That excites me because she really enjoyed it, which means more family bike rides in the future. I love physical activities that we can all enjoy – if we can drag the oldest along next time.

So, what about you? How are you keeping fit this week? Are you losing, maintaining, or it is time to get back on track?

Do or do not. There is no try.

Kris Bales

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Kris Bales is a newly-retired homeschool mom and the quirky, Christ-following, painfully honest founder (and former owner) of Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers. She has a pretty serious addiction to sweet tea and Words with Friends. Kris and her husband of over 30 years are parents to three amazing homeschool grads. They share their home with three dogs, two cats, a ball python, a bearded dragon, and seven birds.

Kris Bales

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