Imma be honest with you. I don’t know what week number we’re on. We haven’t been running en schedule like we should be because we’re worried that our tennis shoes will melt to the asphalt AND our schedule has been so busy that, at this point, I would welcome the end of the world because I might actually get a nap in. We even invited a South Korean UTD student to come stay with us temporarily so that we could say no to other social engagements (JUST KIDDING, JOHN. YOU’RE LIKE A SON TO ME). Actually, he fits right in with our family. He suggested that we go film a video of us outrunning all of the unproven TOXIC PESTICIDES that are being dumped on us while Dallasites sleep soundly in their beds. And he’s napping right now. At 5:30 in the evening.   A Korean after my own heart.

Anyway, the training program that I downloaded is 10 weeks long. We sat down with our handy dandy calendar, counted backwards, and discovered that ten weeks to the half-marathon starts next Saturday. So we may have been taking it easy…er. Also, Alex may or may not have caught the 24 hour swine flu so I had to stay here and bring him frozen yogurt.

We got me a fancy heart rate monitor watch off some weird health website that Alex’s company promotes. It was either that or circus tickets, so…tough choice.

I used it for the first time when I went running on Wednesday night. You guys! I ran 8.14 kilometers! You guys! I have little-to-no idea what that means! I had to google it (a little over five miles). Also, according to my mp3 player, I was running for about 40 minutes. If you do the math, that means that I was running about 8 minute miles.

1 mile in 8 minutes. 1 mile in 8 minutes?

I must have somehow activated the Sonic-boom feature

OR it could have been that Alex and I walked about 56 miles around the River Walk in San Antonio last weekend

OR it could have been all that delicious food that we ate

OR it could have been the 3 minutes of running that I did on the treadmill at the hotel

OR my watch is broken and/or a little too encouraging.

We’re going to do some sleuthing to figure it out. (THIS JUST IN: In an effort to be completely honest and transparent, I google-mapped my route. The final total? 3.1 miles. Apparently my watch interprets the way I swing my arms as actual distance. So…12.9 minute mile. BUT MY ARMS RAN AN 8-MINUTE MILE!  Whew! Now, I don’t have to worry about living up to my impressively high standards. )

I’ve decided that I really enjoy cross-training (Read: I really enjoy getting ready to run a half-marathon by doing activities other than running). In our run after the bike race, Alex and I took off like a bullet. Granted, Alex was a regular bullet and I was one of those slow-moving Matrix bullets that you can dodge while you drink a cup of tea, but still, I felt good. This past weekend, in San Antonio, we seriously did walk a gazillion miles. And even though my run was a bit slow, I really felt pretty good while I was doing it (so good that an 8-minute mile sounded plausible).

So, cross-training? Possibility? I think so.

I’ll wrap up with this: I’m digging my weird techno running music. This week’s selection features a song that is either repetitively chanting  “beet farmer” or “beef armor”. Either way…WIN.

(Read more about our adoption fundraiser half-marathon here.)