I am preparing for a half-marathon right now. This will be my first time training for and participating in a race of this distance. So far, my longest distance has been a 10K. I am nervous and excited for this opportunity. I have been working toward this goal for a long time, and I still have about 15 weeks of training left to go. I’ve decided to keep a video log of my training runs because I learn so much from having that much time to myself to reflect on running, birth, mental health, spirituality, and whatever else decides to pop into my head when I have 3+ miles to cover that day.

I’ve been reflecting a lot lately on training my mind for the long distance. Honestly, it’s a lot harder to prepare my mind for doing something difficult than it is to train my body. There is still a lot of work involved in preparing my body, but the mental training is something else.

This is my very first video log (vlog) about my half-marathon training. As I often do, I thought about birth during this training run. It helps me get through it.

A few highlights:

Mile 1 (Early Labor)

Taming my negative mental chatter

Celebrating milestones

Mile 2 (Active Labor)

Finding my stride and staying the course

Affirmations

Mile 3 (Transition)

Starting to lose my rhythm, getting distracted, and beginning to doubt myself- THIS is where the mental training begins

Affirmations- I don’t have to WANT to in order to do it anyway

Nothing beats feeling proud of myself!