Getting back on the horse

After getting lost a few weeks ago, I have again started training for the half marathon. I had been running 2 miles every other day but then one of the other students put together a workout plan to get us in shape for the race. This isn't just any normal other student, he was the second fastest runner in cross country in the state of Louisiana 5A high school division. He could have walked onto the Texas A&M distance track team, that good. So lets just say the work outs start off tough and only get worse as we progress through the next few weeks, building up to the half marathon.

We started these workouts last Saturday with a nice 4 mile run out by Zach's host house. I stayed with him for the first two miles and then started to lag behind, luckily he only had to turn around to get me twice. After that we did long runs on our own. The first week consisted of a 4 mile, 2 mile, 3 mile, day off, 4x400's sprint workout, 5 mile, and the dreaded 6 mile to finish the week off. All of the workouts went well. The lower distances were easy to map out online but the long ones took some time to plan not too many turns and trying to make sure there would be sidewalks to run on. For the 5 mile run on Thursday, I took an interesting loop around my suburb of Bonn, Germany and only took one wrong turn (it was either turn the wrong way or go down the unlit path next to the rail road tracks, I am happy with my choice). On Friday, I was having a little more trouble finding a path, and that's when it hit me. I could use the same course that I had gotten lost on all those weeks ago.

I typed it into google maps, tweaked a few turns to get the distance just right, and it was the perfect 6 mile loop. It was even in the shape of a rectangle. Just to be sure, I wrote some street names on the back of my hand jut to be sure and off I went. Up the street, down the lane, first left, first right, right turn, right turn, right turn, home. It was that easy! I didn't even have to use the street names I had written down! Then as I walk up to the door, I realize I had forgotten my house key and would have to wake up my host mother. Six mile course - 2, Andrew - 0.