Can’t, for the life of me, find photos of Molly, Kristin, and me after our first training run, so this one of Molly and me before our half-marathon will stand in for it. (Sorry!)

Two weeks ago yesterday, I ran the Twin Cities Marathon; yesterday I ran 13 miles as prep for the December 16 Holiday Half here in Portland. I guess some folks, say, for example, Dimity, might call that a quick turnaround. Our conversation when I told her went something like this. Dimity: “There’s no way I would want to jump back on a training plan so quickly.” Me: “It wasn’t so fast…I took a whole week off of running.” Ah, perspective.

But daylight is burning: I have pals counting on me for this half-marathon. Molly, Kristin, and I are running it together, to pull us all to a finish under two hours. Molly, as loyal readers may recall, is the mother runner I helped run sub-2:00 in spring 2011; she hasn’t raced 13.1 miles in less than two hours since then. Kristin, a new (and incredibly witty!) friend, has a half-marathon PR of 2:00:43. Oh, so close! Come December, we’ll blitz along and dash away all to a 1:57-ish finish. (You heard it here first.)

Molly and I are following the Half-Marathon: Own It plan from Train Like a Mother: How to Get Across Any Finish Line – and Not Lose Your Family, Job, or Sanity, which is 13 weeks long. After some initial errors in my calendar calculations (counting backward isn’t my strong suite), I realized I should jump into Week 5. After a week of no running–not a single step–I was itching to hit the road. The plan called for 3 to 5 easy miles, so Molly and I split the difference and decided we’d run 4 miles. It was pretty much what I would have run on my own volition, not because the plan called for it; the run like a “soft launch” onto the plan. I didn’t feel confined or restricted. The next day the plan prescribed 6 miles with the middle 4 at race pace. The week off had put a lot of spring in my step: Once again, it put the fun in run. (A “frun”??)

Last week’s workouts

I don’t have any closing message to this post. Just wanted to get you gals up to speed on where I’m at. I’m really excited to run the race with Molly and Kristin, as well as do several training runs with them. (Kristin, alas, lives too far away for weekday runs with us, but we’ve got a few long runs on our docket.) My legs and mind feel fresh; it doesn’t feel like I’m jumping the gun by getting on another training plan. To quote Danielle Whippel, a mother runner we finally got to meet last month: Giddy-up!

After a race, how long do you usually need–physically, mentally, emotionally, or family-wise–to recoup before you start training for another race?