In which Month 1 of 10K training is in the books

My first month of 10K training is over.

I went from running 3.1 miles once a week to running 2-3 miles three times a week. This month, I make a big mileage jump and will run my longest distances yet: 4 miles starting this Sunday and 5 miles in a couple of weeks.

I really love the personalized Smart Coach training plan from Runners World. All the other 10K training plans I found were out of my league when it came to mileage required, pace or running days required. The Smart Coach program took into consideration my pace and how much I could train each week.

I also gave myself a ridiculous amount of time to prepare (15 weeks), so I get to ramp up my mileage slowly. For instance, the first month all my runs were 2 or 3 miles. It's not until the second month that I start running longer distances. Perfect. The last thing I want to do is get injured, so slow and steady mileage increases are perfect in my book.

Today was my first training day of Week 5 and due to scheduling stuff I had to run at night. I hate leaving a workout until evening.

I'm tired after my day and there are too many variables that can get in the way of actually getting the workout completed (fatigue, kids, husband delayed at work, etc). Tonight there was, get this, a tornado warning. Awesome.

I was pissed. I just wanted to get 3 miles in and there's a friggin' tornado warning. In Massachusetts. Again.

But the warning came and went without incident. The thunderstorms came and went. And by the time my husband got home from work, the skies were clear, the air was cool and I could indeed get that run in.

While it was storming and before the warning was lifted, I was weighing my options. If my house wasn't flying through the sky, but it was rainy out I could go to the gym and do the 3 miles on the treadmill. At least I would get them in, but I was disappointed as I wanted to get that run in outside.

Oh, how times have changed. Just a few months ago I never wanted to run outside because it was hard. And my glutes really hurt after an outside run. And what if I failed? Then I realized: What if I don't?

Bootcamp strengthened my glutes to the point they do not hurt anymore. And a random Sunday run outside became every run outside. I haven't been to the gym in months because I want to train outside. Why? Because I want to race.

So now I know the answer: If you don't fail, all of a sudden you're training for a 10K.