I haven’t released my 2013 race calendar yet, but I’m starting my next training cycle for the first race of 2013. In January I’ll be running the 3M Half Marathon in Austin, Texas! It will be my second out of state half and hopefully a lot warmer than January in Ohio. I honestly hadn’t heard about this race until recently when Courtney and Melissa promised me this would be an easy, down hill course where I could not only PR, but possibly break 2:00. And if that wasn’t appealing enough, they would also be running the race as well. Let’s see…flat, downhill course? Possibly PR/Sub 2? 60 degree weather in January? Awesome Twitter/runner friends also running? How could I say no to this? After a few weeks of going back and forth, I finally decided that if I were to ever run a half in Texas, this would be it.

I’m 10 weeks out from race day, not my normal 16 week cycle of training. I’m not too concerned on the short time frame though. I two weeks post marathon, so I may have lot a little endurance and speed, but I needed time off to recover. However, I think I’ve still got it in me that I can get some pretty quick long runs in before race day.

I’ve given a lot of thought to how I’d like my future training cycles to go. I’m hoping for more cross training, lifting, and healthier eating habits. I also know that if I want to have a fast half, I need to incorporate more speed workouts into my training. Once again I’ll be using Runner’s World Smart Coach as my training base to get me where I need to be in just 10 short weeks.

This first week will be difficult, as it seems I always start a training cycle on a week I’m traveling. I’ll be in Colorado for half of this week and some of next week. Since we know how things started my last trip to Colorado, I’m going to be paying more attention to hydration than my running. Plus after two weeks off I know I’ll need to ease into running again. I’m looking forward to logging some long runs and even running some of those major hills. Time to dust off those racing shoes….

Interested in learning more about the 3M Half? Thinking of running it? Check out the race page here. As an added bonus, flights from Akron-Canton Airport to Austin are the cheapest they’ve been in months.