365 Days Handmade

Making life a better place, one day at a time

Tag Archives: half marathon training


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Day 305/365: Lucky Day

A week from today is the Big Sur Half Marathon at Monterey Bay.  Sean and I got up this morning, ate some breakfast, and set out for our last long run (6 miles) before the big event.

On the way home, during the final mile, I spotted something on the ground and looked at it in disbelief.  Surely, it couldn’t be… ?  I picked it up and sure enough, it was.  And the real deal, too– not a counterfeit.

I have to say, that was by far my best run yet.

11.1.2015a

This is what it looked like on the ground when I first spotted it.

11.1.2015b

And here it is in all its Andrew Jackson twenty-dollar glory.


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Day 290/365: 9 Miles

Sean and I are signed up for the 2015 Big Sur Half Marathon in Monterey Bay.  It’s four weeks away, and today’s training plan involved running 9 miles.  Some people train for marathons and half marathons because they want to set personal records in their running times.  I run because I like to eat.  According to my Garmin watch, today’s 9-mile run burned up 946 calories.

We went out to eat afterwards, and I’m pretty sure my meal replaced a huge portion of those calories.

10.17.2015


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Day 241/365: The Florida Trip Sock #2 Gets Its Heel

Today I finally sat down with the second sock and carefully followed the fish lips kiss heel instructions that Aunt Georgia emailed me.  Shortly after I finished the heel and had worked my way to knitting in the round again, it was time to pack up so that Sean and I could make the drive back down to Ventura.  This time I drove, so this is how far I’ve gotten on the sock.  Tomorrow morning we are getting up early to run 8 miles for half marathon training, and then I’ll have the rest of the day to continue this sock.

8.29.2015


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Day 238/365: New Coloring Book and No Time to Color

I got home this evening around 6 PM after a long day in the joint and was pleasantly surprised to find that my new coloring book had arrived.

8.26.2015

Unfortunately, I was also scheduled to run 60 minutes today for half marathon training.  So I went out and did that, and then I came home and stretched, and then I made dinner, ate it, cleaned up, put together my lunch for tomorrow, and now it’s ten minutes to my bedtime.

I think I’ll go color.


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Day 221/365: The Day We Ran 8 Miles and Then Drove 160 More

Today was a long but productive day.  We got up at 6 AM because our half marathon training schedule called for an 8-mile run.  After we got home, we had just enough time to take showers and eat breakfast before making the 80-mile drive to the Stub Hub Center in Carson, where we had tickets to see the L.A. Galaxy play the Seattle Sounders at 1 PM.  It was a packed game and a lot of fun, but it also meant a lot of time being in the car and waiting in lines.  Now we’re back in Ventura and I could easily go to bed, even though it’s only a few minutes past 8.

Hope your weekend was a fun one, too!

8.9.2015

I took this photo a few seconds right before L.A. scored their first goal.  (Check out that packed stadium!)  Go, Galaxy!


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Day 211/365: First Day of No Sugary Goodness

The Ventura Half Marathon is a little over six weeks away, and I have to start getting serious about the diet part of my half marathon training.  Up until now, I’ve been letting myself eat candy bars and chocolate-covered marshmallow cookies and key lime pie.  Two days ago, as I was huffing and puffing my way through mile two of a fifty-minute training run, I told myself that I had to cut sugar out of my diet.  And then I told that self that I would, after the last of the key lime pie was gone.

So now the entire pie has been eaten, and there are no more cookies or desserts in the refrigerator.  Today I refrained from buying a Snickers Almond candy bar from the vending machine at work (although I caved and bought one yesterday; it was delicious), and I didn’t ask my co-worker if I could have a handful from his Costco-sized bag of fun-size candy bars (from which he’d been supplying me all last week).  I’m going to count today as my first day of no sugary junk food and see if I can hold out for at least 30 days.

7.26.2015B

Goodbye, pie. Sigh.