Boy, I haven’t done one of these in a long time, have I? After taking some time off during the whole “buying and moving house” thing, I’m back onto the running with a vengeance. As of today, it’s officially 18 weeks til the Sydney Half Marathon, and I’ve just completed my third week of training. I’m basing my efforts on Hal Higdon’s training plan. Since that’s a 12-week program, I’m using these extra weeks at the beginning to build up my fitness and ease myself into the routine. (I’m very wary of my troublesome left hamstring.) So far I’ve been taking it easy, using the Couch to 5K podcasts to structure my runs and keep me from pushing too hard. I’m happy to report that it’s working! Yesterday I did my longest run since the City 2 Surf: twenty minutes without a break. I know it doesn’t sound like much, but it felt so great to be able to do it and not feel like I was injuring myself. I’m not even sore today! And I’ve got Max challenging me with the Nike+iPod, so the competitive angle is helping.

My only fear with regards to the actual race is the cutoff time. All runners have to make it through the first 11K in less than 70 minutes or you get diverted to the finish line on a shortcut and don’t get an official time. My goal, therefore, is to make this cutoff time. That’s totally doable, right? I’m just going to consider the 11K marker as my real finish line, and as long as I make the cutoff, I’ll be happy even if I have to walk the entire second half of the race.