I'm just about a quarter of the through my training plan for the Rock N Roll Philly Half Marathon and I wanted to share my observations so far.

1. Getting up at 5 a.m. gets easier and easier. It's definitely darker at 5 a.m. now than it was earlier this summer, but I've still managed to pry myself out of bed despite that.

2. Waking up at 5 a.m. requires me to go to bed really early. Usually that's by 10 p.m. at the latest, but I shoot for 9:30 or 9:45. Some nights, like last night, I'll accidentally fall asleep at 7 p.m. while I'm reading in bed. It happens.

3. I've managed to not skip a run yet. That's something I'm really proud of. I should easily be able to keep that up through July, but I know in August things might get tricky.

4. Because of heat and humidity, I'm having a really, really hard time hitting my training paces during tempo and pace runs. I can still manage to get my intervals done at the right times though, so that's a small victory.

5. Walk breaks are so necessary this summer. I hate taking them, but it's one of the only ways I can get my heart rate down and start to cool off just a bit. I'm trying to embrace them.

6. I haven't cross-trained once this training cycle. Granted I only have true cross training days once a week, but I just can't motivate myself to do anything other than run. Sometimes I consider my 1.5 mile walking commute to be my cross training. This is not good.

7. I am constantly hungry, but I'm trying to get more and more of my fuel from fruits and veggies. The farmer's market is definitely helping with that.

It's been a solid training cycle so far and I'm optimistic that by September the weather will be more favorable and I will be able to rock my half.