If this blog was my boyfriend...

He would be asking for his stuff back. Actually, he would have already asked for his stuff back. And I probably would have said "Oh yeah, I'll get to that" and not thought about it again until now when I finally get around to it and find out it's been so long that he really doesn't want his old sweatshirt and cds back. It's been so long that he's moved on to a new sweatshirt and likes different music now.

I guess that boyfriend didn't get what it was like to have a demanding full time job, 2 busy teenagers, 1 cute husband, 2 dogs, and 9 chickens. Oh, and throw in marathon training on top of that, and you have the perfect recipe for me to ignore my blog for, um, has it really been almost 3 months?

Marathon training? It's going great. My biggest challenge so far has been the making sure I not only run, but get in the cross training days. It takes up a lot of time and planning ahead has been essential. I even managed to go back to the rock climbing gym after not having gone for almost a year. Yes, another boyfriend ignored. So ignored I had to fill out a new waiver. Kind of embarrassing when this place is your cute husband's second home!

Tomorrow I'm up to running 10 miles. At the least likely to melt me to the sidewalk coolest part of the day... 5am. This is Tucson and it is June. If I had been smarter I would have chosen a February marathon. Then as my runs they got longer, they would have not involved carrying more water than my actual body weight. Ahh - the joys of desert living. Yes, I might be a tad jealous of those of you who run at noon, have rain on a regular basis, and grow something other than cactus in your front yards.

My cute husband made sure I was well stocked in the endurance food as well. And he got extra points for making sure it all matched!

Thankfully, my cute husband made sure I was prepared for this running weather and bought me a hydration bladder to put in the vest I bought at the REI garage sale a couple of months ago. It had been barely used. Someone else must have decided that running in hot weather wasn't all that it was cracked up to be.

So dear blog, I hope to be more attentive in the coming months. This is the only way I will be able to remember what training for my first marathon was like when I'm 90 because I'm sure the heat will have melted my brain by then.

A Training Plan...

If I had known my sister was on top of this training plan thing, I wouldn't have worried nearly so much about it.  She ran her last marathon in 2001 (I think she said the Marine Corps Marathon) and worked with a trainer and saved all the training info she got from that experience.  She thinks we are about in the same place since I've never ran a marathon and it's been 11 years since she has.  Probably true.  I should probably start with the basics!

Date (long run) Sun      Mon    Tues    Wed    Thurs    Fri    Sat

5-May              Rest      X         3          X         3        X   4 mi
12-May            Rest      X         3          X         3        X   4 mi
19-May            Rest      X         3          X         3        X   6 mi
26-May            Rest      X         3          X         3        X   6 mi
2-Jun                Rest      X         3          X         3        X   6 mi
9-Jun                Rest      X         3          X         3        X   8 mi
16-Jun              Rest      X         3          X         3        X   6 mi
23-Jun              Rest      X         4          X         4        X   10 mi
30-Jun              Rest      X         4          X         4        X   6 mi
7-Jul                 Rest      X         4          X         4        X   10 mi
14-Jul               Rest      X         4          X         4        X   12 mi
21-Jul               Rest      X         4          X         4        X   8 mi
28-Jul               Rest      X         4          X         4        X   14 mi
4-Aug               Rest      X         4          X         4        X   14 mi
11-Aug             Rest      X         4          X         4        X   Half Marathon
18-Aug             Rest      X         5          X         5        X   16 mi
25-Aug             Rest      X         5          X         5        X   18 mi
1-Sep               Rest      X         5          X         5        X   12 mi
8-Sep               Rest      X         5          X         5        X   20 mi
15-Sep             Rest      X         5          X         5        X   12 mi
22-Sep             Rest      X         5          X         5        X   22 mi
29-Sep             Rest      X         5          X         5        X   12 mi
6-Oct               Rest      X         5          X         5        X   3 mi
October 7th MARATHON!!!

X = CrossTrain: Swimming, bicycling, yoga/pilates/weights
 
The only thing I am changing is that it starts out running 3 miles during the week at the beginning.  I run four miles on a regular basis and see no reason to quit... it would be like going backwards... right?

My most favorite thing about this training plan is that is starts with a rest day.  How lucky am I? 
 
My sister also threw in this whole thing about nutrition... which most of it I'm doing already... (yay)... except for the one sweet a week.  I have a horrible sweet tooth.  Horrible.  This will be good for me.  I need some sort of motivation!  But it is also good that it starts after Easter and my birthday!  And also too bad for me that I bought a countertop ice cream maker last summer.  Again, probably really for the best for me.
 
Thoughts?  Opinions?  How does this compare to any marathon training plans that you have ever done? 
 

If you're here from Fitness Friday... welcome! 

I can't have anything...

I'm home for Spring Break this week.  We decided not to go out of town in favor of painting the outside of the house.  Yeah I know.  Life around here is more fun than Disneyland.  Maybe it had to do with the fact that we have almost a $1000 worth of paint in the shed that we bought in October to do this.  That's where my Spring Break vacation is.  Stuck to the house.

I should be more honest.  My Cute Husband is painting the house.  I am deep cleaning the inside.  Not that it needs it or anything.  I think there are some dust bunnies that were getting ready to carry us off into the night. 

During this process, I was cleaning out the drawer where all of our energy food is kept.  The Clif Bars, the Powerbar chews, the Nuun I got from entering their contest last year.  My Cute Husband doesn't care for the taste of Nuun so I've been the only one using it.  While training for my half marathon last fall, I used a little bit, but four tubes goes a long way.  I think each tube has something like 12 tablets in it.  During my training I opened each tube to see what each flavor tasted like.  My favorite is grape.  Needless to say, since I haven't been running really long distances lately and it hasn't been super hot, I haven't used a lot of my Nuun lately.  I was saving it for my Chicago marathon training this summer. 

You noticed I said *was*?

While cleaning out this drawer, I picked up the Nuun bottles and noticed that they seemed a lot lighter than the one I had that wasn't open.  I looked inside.  One lone tablet lie at the bottom of each tube.

One.

In conducting the investigation into what happened to my Nuun, I found that my 14 year old son wanted something to eat.  In this process, he decided that in the snacks I have available to him, which include apples, bananas, popcorn, cheese & crackers, and many other things depending on the day and how long it's been since I've been to the grocery store, there was nothing that he cared to eat.  He thought that eating Nuun tablets straight out of the tube were his best bet.  He kept doing it for days, thinking that I would never notice one or two gone, until, one day there was only one in each tube left so he decided he should quit.  No one ever said he has any common sense.

He had no idea that he had eaten almost $30 worth of Nuun tablets. 

Yes, this is why I can't have anything nice.  And also why I dream of beating my head against the wall some days.

Sometimes I wonder why I even try.

Shoes revisited...

Yes I have a lot to say about shoes and I didn't say it all the other day.

Minimalist shoes.  Intriguing, no?  Even if you don't think they are for you, it is food for thought.  Has the shoe industry been just trying to sell us ultra padded shoes that won't keep us from injuring ourselves?  Or is this latest fad just a ploy to, um, sell more shoes?

I suppose for me in the end it really doesn't matter which.  I love my Saucony's that feel like I'm running on pillows.  But, I really wanted to see if a pair of minimalist shoes were any good either.  Not necessarily to run in, but walking around in doing normal things.  Hopefully just to strengthen my feet in general.

This led me to the Running Shop where I managed to find myself walking out the door with a pair of brand new shoes. 

First I need to compliment the Brooks company for coming up with such a great box.  You can't help but smile while looking at it.  If I was a hoarder, I'm sure I would keep it front and center in my piles of boxes and such so that people could smile before gasping at my house that would surely look like it could swallow them at any point.  But, since I'm not a hoarder, I am reduced to keeping my box out of public view and hoping that my fellow running blog readers will get the same enjoyment out of this box that I do.

And the shoes?  I went with a pair of Brooks from their Pure Project.  I've worn them a few times now and am very surprised at how sturdy they are.  I don't know what I was expecting, but it wasn't the snug, secure feeling I got.  Or the cushiness.  And this is coming from a girl who normally runs on fluff.  Yes, they are very lightweight, but you expected that right?

I have yet to run more than across the street in them.  I'm a chicken at heart and don't want to end up hurting myself.  I don't know that my stride is a minimalist stride.  I am tempted to run a mile or so in them just to say that I did.

Minimalist shoes?  What do you think about them?  Fad?  Or something more?  Do you own a pair?  How is that working out for you?

And if you're visiting from Fitness Friday - welcome!  Thanks again to Jill for hosting this blog hop!

Let's talk shoes.

How many pairs of shoes does one person need?  Two?  Six?  Ten?  True confessions time.  I own a lot more shoes than this.  A lot more.  Shoes are a HUGE weakness of mine.  I honestly have never counted how many pairs I have, but am afraid to say that I could probably wear a pair each day of the month and still have shoes to spare.  No.  I am still not going to go count my shoes.

Yeah.  I could probably feed a small nation for a month in the money I have tied up in shoes.

A girl has to have some weakness - right?

Of course, my obsession passion leads into my running shoe life as well. 

You will never believe the great deal on shoes I got at our local REI's garage sale!  (I never said I paid full price for any of my shoes!).

For those of you who have never heard of this, REI has a garage sale a couple of times a year where they sell everything that has been returned to them.  There are no returns and you get what you get.  People line up in droves.  I braved the crowds to go over and made my first pass through the shoe section.  I mostly saw lots of worn out hiking boots.  Sorry.  Not on my radar!  The second pass through I saw these....

Yay!  Brand new shoes?!?  In my size!!!!  I looked at the bottoms... I think they had been worn across a parking lot once... so they couldn't be returned as new.  They still had that brand new running shoe feel... when you first put them on and it feels like you are walking on pillows.  



How might this get better you ask?  They were a whole whopping $40.  I know, my non-running friends might not think this is a deal, but, I am sure the readers of this blog know that my running shoes retail for $130 and this is a screaming deal. 

I think I did cartwheels all the way home.

And then put my brand-used shoes on a went for a "new shoe" run.

I could lie to you and say...

That I've been racking up the miles.  More miles than I can count.  I'm wearing out shoes left and right. 

OK.  So maybe not.

Maybe the truth is that I got a whole 7 miles in last week. 

And watched 14 episodes of....

in the last two weeks.

I am not one to get addicted to TV shows, but this show has caught my attention and I spent about 5 hours on Sunday watching the last 3 episodes before PBS took them off their website (and I would have to spend $20 at iTunes to watch them!).

So, yay.  They are done.  Back to running.  And blogging.

On the fitness side of things, the school district I work for made a (free!) Fitness Center at the high school for all employees to use.  They even have made classes like Boot Camp, Circuit Training, and Zumba.  I've been going to Circuit Training twice a week for the last month.  I love that the trainer looks at what you are capable of and matches up your abilities to what he has assigned and modifies if necessary.  I love the "family" feel of this class... so much better than the gym I had belonged to!

I'm hoping for more core fitness this way as I work to get ready for Chicago.  I know that it's an important part of training that I have never been good at doing or sticking with.  I'm hoping for much better results this time around!

Where have I been?  Not posting.  Laundry.  Dishes.  Work.  Kid activities.  An anniversary trip stuck in there.  Just not enough time in the day to do all the things I need to do, much less want to do!  But, I find I am much more dedicated to my running routine if I am blogging about it.  Please accept my apologies for being MIA the past month.

The big news?  I am signed up for the Chicago Marathon!  I've never done a marathon before, but if you remember correctly, my goal is to do one before I'm 40, and the big day is only one year and two months away at this point.  Good thing the marathon is in October!

How did this happen?  My sister that lives in Chicago and I were talking at Thanksgiving.  We thought it might be fun to do.  Then sign up time came at the beginning of February.  I got an email saying it was more than half full and texted her about it.  She texted me back saying she had just signed up.  My Cute Husband and I were on our anniversary trip while all of this was happening.  Long story short, I signed up for the Chicago Marathon on my phone sitting in the parking lot of a Verizon Wireless store.  After all, as my Cute Husband pointed out, she probably would have been mad at me if she signed up and then I didn't. 

It will be fun to do it with someone.  Especially since she lives there.  And has done it once - about 10 years ago. 

Now for the hard part.  To find a training plan.  I know I am usually a fly by the seat of my pants type girl, but for something this big, I feel like I need a plan.  Any recommendations from anyone?  What has worked for you?

If you're joining me for Fitness Friday - welcome!