Since returning home from the 2014 Walt Disney World Marathon Weekend, training has been a mixed bag of training successes and failures. Most of which are on the failure side. I’ve had to deal with illnesses which took out entire weeks of training from me. I’ve also struggled with motivation. I think the failures, which I’ve chronicled through this year, have contributed to the lack of motivation. Let’s face it, when you don’t train, you loose your conditioning. You just don’t run as fast and your body starts to like the rest. I’ve had lower calf cramps ruin my last two half marathons…the first of which should have been a new half marathon PR.

It’s hard to do this when you find your training sessions filled with failures to meet your expectations. I mean, before the Walt Disney World Marathon, there were so many highs. I know that I’m capable of running faster for longer than I’ve been doing. Last week, I managed 2 training runs of 3 miles each. They were painfully slow and painful to run. Life did get in the way a bit last weekend. However, it’s been part of this downward cycle I’m on training wise. The week before last, I had ZERO training runs and ZERO workouts because of a crazy week dealing with rehearsals and performing on Good Morning America. The week before that, I ONLY ran in the Hollywood Half Marathon. Before that, 1 training run of 6 miles and the Angels Baseball Foundation 5K. You’d have to go back to the week of March 17-23 to find a good week of training for me. That week, I ran 6 miles, 3 miles (with a friend), and 12 miles at the beach! That week was probably my best week all year since the marathon.

So, I hope you’ll forgive my over-excitement today. But, for the first time in (what feels like) forever, I had a really good training run last night! For the first time in (what feels like) forever, I maintained a pace of under 12 minutes per mile for 3 miles last night! It wasn’t exactly like my pre-marathon training runs where I was clocking in at this kind of tempo regularly because as soon as I crossed 3 miles, the lower back pain I’ve been dealing with lately kicked in. It was as if my body knew it had to make it for 3 miles and then didn’t want to go another step. So, that was different. However, it felt AMAZING to finish 3 miles in under 36 minutes again! Here’s the great part about last night…it could have been even faster if not for that darn last traffic light. Waiting a full minute sucked. I was on track for finishing a full minute faster! I kept thinking during the last mile that I would finish in 33 minutes, 30 seconds. Up until that last traffic light, that finish time was there for the taking. Oh well. Nothing I could do about that. Although I haven’t looked it up, this might have been my fastest 3 miles in a training run since before the marathon. It is my second fastest 3 miles this year! Only the first 3 miles of the Surf City USA Half Marathon went faster.

Sorry if you’re sick of this song. However, this is how I’m feeling after this fantastic run. Plus, isn’t life a little better with some minions in it? Anyways….

This is the new and improved playlist for my running these days. It’s a list that goes a little longer than a 10K for me. I’ll be adding some songs to this list over the weekend in preparation for the OC Half Marathon on May 4th. However, tomorrow, I’ll be testing this list over, what I’m hoping will be, 10 miles. Since I put this list on my phone, I’ve only run 3 miles each time. So, I’m not sure how some of the songs will work while running yet. However, I’m loving some of my new additions! It will be interesting to see if I like running to the Idina Menzel version of Let it Go as much as I have enjoyed running to Demi Lovato’s version. I know that many do not like Demi’s version as compared to Idina Menzel’s version. However, take a listen to Demi Lovato’s Let it Go…

Once Demi’s version gets into the chorus for the first time, I love the way the tempo keeps the energy going throughout the rest of the song. Plus, the bridge of this version of the song has been fun to have in my ears while I’m running. While I still prefer the version in Frozen to Demi’s version as a song, Demi’s version is still fun to run with. It’s also the song that was playing as I finished my run last night. So, I guess my feeling about this song as a running buddy are a little skewed. However, since I placed this song in my playlist, I’ve been very pleased with its addition.

By the way, I’ve also been enjoying the song that precedes the Demi Lovato Let it Go on my list (also from Frozen). Love is Open Door is just fun and silly. It makes me laugh. In the last part of the third mile, anything that makes you laugh is a good thing. Right?

Last night may have been the first time in (what feels like) forever that I had a run like this one. I’m hoping that it will be the start of some good runs. I really want tomorrow’s 10 miles to leave me feeling good about my upcoming half marathon. No matter how fast or how slow tomorrow goes, the goal is to finish all 10 miles. If I can do it in 2 hours or under, I will be over the moon happy. If not, I’ll just keep plugging away. No matter how the run goes tomorrow and no matter how fast or slow the OC Half Marathon is for me, I’m looking forward to the long gap between the OC Half Marathon and the Disneyland 10K/Disneyland Half Marathon/Dumbo Double Dare. May is going to be about finding my training groove again.

Is anyone racing this weekend? If not, what distances are you planning on covering?