Oiselle has put forth a fantastic challenge for the month of April. To start marathon month celebrations, they’re turning their attention to celebrating the half marathon and trying to take away the stigma of it being “just” a half marathon. It is a FULL thirteen point one miles – not an easy feat for many people, and the half is such a fun distance!
Details of the challenge can be found here on their blog. Essentially, commit to doing something 13 times during the month of April. For some, it’s been 13 push ups a day, running 13 times in April, incorporating 13 cross training sessions – you name it!
For me, I’m doing 13 morning runs. I’m training for the 19.3 Conquer the Capital challenge this spring at the Madison Half Marathon/Twilight 10 km, and I’ve been getting my runs in with a few hiccups here and there, but sticking to a plan has been working for me. What hasn’t been working is getting up in the morning to do those runs. I’ve been fitting them in after work or if I can escape briefly for my shorter recovery runs. Last year, when I was training I was so much better about waking up, but it’s been tough with all the insanity of graduate school and other obligations to make myself get out of bed at 5:30. This challenge presents the perfect opportunity to motivate me to get my butt out of bed!
So far, I’ve been doing well! I run commuted to work (~5 miles) on Friday morning, woke up at 5:30 to try and get a run in before heading down to Chicago this past Saturday, and this morning hopped on my treadmill for my recovery run before work. So three down – ten to go! I’m really surprised at how much this challenge has helped provide some extra motivation. I hope that by doing the 13 AM runs, I can get myself back into the habit of morning running and not have to struggle so much! I love having my run out of the way at the beginning of the day!
I hope this encourages other people to give the challenge a shot – we’re 4 days in, but plenty of time to make it happen! Good luck to everyone!
mentalhealthyrunner 