Satisfying in September

Since I live in Cedar Park now and not Austin, is it appropriate to keep my blog name Rachel Runs Austin?  I THINK SO!!  Plus, Cedar Park is just A LITTLE BIT outside of Austin, North West.

The ninth month of the year is upon us and I believe now that I'm settled and set, it's time to make new goals for this upcoming Austin Half-Marathon in February 2014.  I mean there are only 167 days to go, who's nervous?  I AM!!  The past few months have been so slack when it comes to my running and training for this epic run.  A lot of you might not think it's epic, but this is my first Half-Marathon, so I'm just a wee bit nervous.  I did, however, end up getting new running shoes and a running watch to track my progress:

I absolutely LOVE them too.  Brooks feel so great on my feet and when I run, it's literally like I'm running on clouds.  Who would've thought that?  I did enjoy my Nike Run Free 3.0 shoes, but to start being serious and committed, I needed something with more support and that will work well with my stride, step and impact.  This was possibly the best birthday gift I received and the Garmin watch (which happens to be my in my favorite color) is so nice.  I don't even miss caring my phone anymore.  When I do run, since I run with my camel pak, I just put my phone and my keys in there.  It's nice not to have anything stapped onto my arm.  This purchase was sponsored by Rogue Running in Cedar Park, which is an amazing store with wonderful employees.

To tell you about my progress of sorts, I registered  for two races in September.  One is the 80's 8k (5 mile run) that is happening September 15th and the other race is the Rogue Rescue Run which is a 5k (3.1 mile run).  Then there is the Turkey Trot in November (5 mile run) and I believe those should somewhat push me into the right direction because right now I'm only doing 2 miles a run.  If, by the end of this month, I can get to running 5 miles, possibly 6, I will be so happy.  I can definitely get to 13+ miles by January, but I want to pace myself in a good way that I don't get burned out or injured, which reminds me that I have to read up on my Chi Running book to get some of the exercises out of there.  Another thing that I'm doing to help me prepare is yoga (on my Wii Fit) and maybe two days a week I will go to the little gym in our apartment complex and indulge on the elliptical.  I'm trying to do as much outside running as I can because come November the time will change and it will get darker at 5/5:30 p.m.  which will mess up my schedule big time because of my work schedule.

So for now, I leave you with this:

This is my half-marathon map.  I will mentally prepare myself for this.