Day 1 report

Ok - day 1 - not perfectly to plan - but not too bad. Went home ate a little food and headed up to the gym. The gym was packed... so it took forever and a day for us to renew our membership. At this point it was getting pretty late. So i hopped on a treadmill... to do my warmup. Put the incline at 1.0 - it is amazing to me how tough i find it to run on the treadmill. So i ran my mile at just under 10 minute pace according to the treadmill...even though it did not feel that slow...then i upped the speed to an 8.5 pace for my 800s which i figured would get me to around a 3:33 800. I did 4 of those with a 1:30 recovery inbetween the first ones - the last one I was so hot and dizzy that i hopped of said treadmill til the pukey feeling went away - i did the 4th 800 and a cool down and called it a day. The plan was to do 3 miles of speedwork not 2 - but seeing as how i've never done speedwork on a treadmill - and the fact that i didn't want to show my dinner to everyone - i cut my losses. Well at this point i went to start lifting at 8:10 - the pool closes at 8:30 and the gym at 9:00... it was sooooo crowded that we decided to push the lifting off to another day and opted for a quick dip in the hot tub before the pool closed! so - i didn't do everything on my list - but it was a good start. Fortunately I'm meeting solar tonight - so no bailing on my run tonight!

enough is enough

I have been a miserable slacker. Enough is enough already. No more excuses - no more being lazy. I'm going to start posting my weekly workouts as a way to make myself accountable. I'm also going to plan runs with running buddies - since I seem to keep bailing when it's just me. I am so done with the snow. After a winter of running in the cold and snow - i've reached my limit - and just can't seem to make myself get out the door. Once i'm out there it's fine - but it's those first few steps down the driveway that are the hardest part! Wish me luck and give me hell if I don't stick to what i'm suppose to do. 10 weeks til pittsburgh and if I have any hopes of enjoying that race I need to get to work now!

i've forgotten how to run

I have taken a month off from running. This is why:

1 week: recovery from disney and buckeye 50k/turned into half mary
2 weeks: giant hole in my leg and stitches - no exercise allowed
1 week: was fighting a bit of a bug - learned my lesson in october not to push it when sick - you end up getting sicker.

So - this week I was starting fresh. Why is it that the week you "start" over again - you have 800 billion other things going on in your life that make it really hard to get work outs in? It is friday morning and thus far on my "starting fresh" week I ran 5 hideously slow and painful miles on Tuesday night. That's it. 5 freaking miles at a pace slower than what my planned marathon pace was back in october. How the heck am I going to run the national half marathon on march 21st and pittsburgh marathon on may 3rd in an respectable amount of time if i'm running 5 crappy miles a week? I'm planning on running tonight and then getting in my long run this weekend... but i feel like i'm starting from scratch. How can 1 month off kill my fitness level this badly? What would happen if i had a real injury and had to take actual time off? I'd probably be running 20 minute miles if I had to take more than a month off! ugh i am so frustrated! I'm not worried about getting a great pr or anything in pittsburgh - i've learned that races are way more fun if you don't put that kind of pressure on yourself - but good lord i don't want to run 2 hrs slower than i should be capable! At this rate i'm going to see if i can start pittsburgh early with the walkers! ha! ugh.

Seriously?

So - spend yesterday getting all geared up to kick off a new training program - and now I'm sick and my leg is infected again. Seriously - what is wrong with me? I have been sick more in the last year than ever before? what am I turning into some type of hypochondriac? Anyway - spun for a half an hour last night - kept getting light headed and thought i was going to throw up. Hopefully I'll be feeling better here soon. yuck.

Making Up for Lost Time

I spent a good portion of last night helping steve lay out his training plan for our next marathon - probably pittsburgh. It's funny how long or short 12 weeks can seem. In some ways I think ok 12 weeks - that's fine i have decent mileage base this winter - I should be able to ramp up the intensity and get into shape for this next race. My definition of in shape is changing a bit. I don't know that I'm going to go trying to get a BQ or anything. When I ran Disney with steve - it was the most fun I've had running a race. I didn't think about time at all - until we rounded the final mile and I said to steve "if you pick it up right now you can come in under 5hrs" we did and it was awesome! I know i haven't written a race report - but being with steve during that race and crossing the finish line with him on his first marathon will always be one of my favorite running memories. That and the part where I accidently tripped him and he went rolling across the ground in front of cinderella's castle -- nice - hey I'll run the marathon with you to get you through it - oh wait let me make you fall down and get bruises all over you at mile 12!
Anyway - back to my race plans - i obviously want to keep improving - and I have certain goals - both BQ and inbetween - but I think if I've learned anything - it's that if you aren't running to enjoy it - than what are you doing it for? That being said it is still time for me to get my butt back in gear. In my three week vacation from running and any exercise (stupid hole in my leg) I have managed to gain 10 lbs. I'm not even making that up. This morning i weighed 140 lbs. On my wedding day 1 year ago I weighed 128. I need to get back down to 130. I'm hoping this will happen when i just get my butt moving again.
Steve and I went for a 5.5 mile run on Saturday and it was a ton of fun. We actually ran in shorts!! how cool is that. I took us on a route that is basically downhill for the first 2 miles - and uphill the last 2 - this is one of the routes i used to get ready for the hills in cincy last year. The run was great - we talked to the whole time and even got into a water fight and a short race at the end of the run.... woke up the next day and lo and behold I was SORE ! yes - sore from 5.5 miles!!! aggghhh
So it is time to get back in the game. Hopefully tonight i'll be able to map out my training program and start making up for lost time. Anyone up for hill repeats tomorrow night?