half marathon training: day one

it's here! today i begin training for a half marathon!

after lots of deliberation (too much, yet totally typical for the sort of person that i am), i finally decided to just go ahead and sign up for a half marathon. i was going to do the boston athetic association half marathon (the same peeps who put on the boston marathon), but then i psyched myself out for the following reasons:

a. there were really fast-looking kenyans on the website

b. i have a hunch that it might cost oodles of money to register

so instead i signed up for the applefest half marathon in hollis, new hamster. it only cost $30 clams to register, it's only an hour from boston, and there is FREE APPLE CRISP AT THE FINISH LINE. even if i don't feel like eating it after running all that way, it's still nice to know that it's there. and they do offer a free long-sleeved tech shirt for registering... and lord knows that those are my achilles heel! i love me a free tee shirt.

if i start training today, i will have exactly three months to prepare for this mofo. after a lot of research (an informal survey of the people i know who have managed to do full marathons), i decided on hal higdon's half marathon training program. i decided to do the intermediate version not because i am a good runner, because i am really not. but the intermediate starts out at a level where the exercise that i am doing will help me keep my diabetes under control, whereas the beginner program's first couple weeks didn't seem like enough of a challenge to keep my beastly sugars tamed. because i do so much of my diabetes management through exercise, this was one of my biggest concerns. and i figure that if the intermediate becomes too much too soon, i can always switch back to the beginner training program.

i am worried/ interested to see how my sugars hold up during this period of training. i am expecting tons of trial and error. eric is helping me design (okay, he's designing it for me-- i am not helping at all) a comprehensive spreadsheet that will serve as my running diary. in it, i plan to track the extent of my workout, time, route, foods eaten, and pre, during (if necessary), and post blood sugars. i think that although i may not be able to come up with foolproof ways to handle the diabetes factor, i'll at least be able to make good decisions based on the data that i record.

so here we go. monday: day one. stretch and strengthen at the gym! (cue rocky theme song.)