Training for Half Marathon

Well two massages later I think my recovery from the marathon is complete. I took a 3 day hiatus from running and was pretty much chomping at the bit by the third day. I'm back at it in full swing now, but thankfully, only doing half the mileage I did in marathon training. Right now I'm working on speed as it is mine and Adam's goal to break 2 hours the Gasparilla half marathon, which is scheduled for March 1st. At the Atlanta half on Thanksgiving I finished in 2:04. My goal then was 2:10, and if I'd had any idea I was that close I would've picked up the pace, to say the least! I'm getting another crack at it though and the focus of my training for the next month will be consistently running 9:00-9:10/min miles. I ran 10 yesterday at a 9:05 average pace, plus I'm running on shoes that need to be replaced. I'm waiting until a week or two before the race to buy new ones because I know how I can fly on new shoes.

I saw Auntie Chiara posted some pics from our marathon weekend on her blog (thank you for that!) I want to add a few along with a story that needs to be immortalized. My son, always the ladies' man, saw a little girl that caught his eye while we were waiting for dinner at Downtown Disney. She was probably three, maybe four, and quite a little cutie with a headful of blonde curls. Anthony immediately chased her down and threw his arms around her in a hug, and even shook her hand! Both families just cracked up at the spectacle, and Anthony did not want to let her go when it was time for her family to move on. Her name was Layla.