Why I Can Buy Pink, Plus a Look Into My Week

THE NEW ADDITION

I’ve been a little out of it recently, partly because I wanted to shift focus on the blog to be more of what I’m doing and a little more involved in my training, but ok, let’s be honest, the real reason is because I saw a picture of a dog on a local rescue Facebook page last week.  “Liking” that page was probably my first step to “the downfall”, but we’ve been thinking of getting a dog after Boston, and I thought I had better willpower than that. (I’ve fostered up to about 20 cats in my house at ONE TIME, so I really should have known better than that. WRONG.)  I saw her picture, and that was all she wrote.  We kept her for almost a week to see if she and the cats would get along.  I wish the cats would appreciate her playfulness more than they do, as they seem to have forgotten what they behaved like when they were kittens. Oh well, she’s awesome, she’s loving, extremely smart, and she fits in very well.  When I get back from my trip next week, Scarlett will be the newest addition to our family.  And bonus – I CAN BUY PINK!!!

Back to the “stuff”……

Saturday will be three weeks til my first goal race, the Myrtle Beach 1/2 marathon. My goal is anything under 1:44 to finally bring me to an OFFICIAL PR for this distance.  I’m nervous.  I’m excited. I’m ready to take this race and bring my all.  I’ve had a few people ask my what my training plan is like, so I wanted to share that. Here goes!

Monday: Swim

Swimming has been one of those things that has required me to test my patience and understanding, something that I’ve rarely had to use made myself use when it comes to sports. If I can’t do something well relatively quickly, I just don’t do it.  That clearly explains why I do not play golf. If I hadn’t wanted to participate in triathlons, I wouldn’t have stuck with swimming.  To say that I like it would be lying, but I’ve found that I like the challenge of it more than I actually like to do it.  I guess it took me 40 years to realize that if you just stick with something and practice, you will generally get better.  D’oh! Swimming is finally becoming “easier” for me, not that it’s EASY per se, but just not kicking my ass every time I do it. Cheers to sticking something out!!!!

My equip before the swim.

Tuesday: Tempo workout with my group.  I had previously never really enjoyed tempo runs, but in the last few months, I’ve come to like them.  A lot. Maybe it is the challenge of it, the endorphins after I’m done, I’m not sure.  But I know that these workouts are key in my race performance, so maybe that’s part of it.

Wednesday: Yoga and strength.  I can do strength all day, but I hate yoga.  I asked my coach to add to my schedule or I would find ANY REASON to get out of it if I just said, “Oh I need to do yoga so I’ll fit it in somewhere”. I hate the flexible people that can bend themselves into a pretzel. Nothing personal, but I can’t do anything similar, so it’s just annoying.  I’ll certainly do what I need to do to improve my running, stretch every muscle that I have in my entire body, and well, try to improve my actual flexibility.  Maybe it’s like swimming: the zillionth time you do something, you’ll see improvement.  So maybe in a few decades, I’ll be able to do a real “fold”. Sigh.

Thursday: Speed work at the track

I’ve been in love with track work as soon as I started doing it, probably four years ago. I don’t know what it is, but I enjoy the challenge, the pushing, the everything about it.

Friday: OFF!!! But I do have a little strength work….

Saturday: Short(er) and typically easier run.  Sometimes I’ve given a distance range to do, say…3-4 miles, but I always do the higher number.  (By the way, I’m relatively competitive.  I betchya you other competitive people didn’t know that already! Ha!) I can enjoy these runs more and generally run from home and look at the waterway that’s about 1.5 miles away from the house.  I know what’s coming the next day, so I really do enjoy these days.

Sunday: Long run.  These runs have varied in their length and intensity, but I’ve enjoyed the challenge of pick-ups in the middle, running with a group from my group ( I guess that makes me a groupy, right?!), and again, I think it’s the challenge that gets me the most.  It keeps me interested, I run no matter the conditions, I run because I know to NOT run would be to leave out a piece of the race puzzle.  I’m not willing to do that anymore, to sacrifice an outcome that I want later because of how I may feel today.

I was kindly advised that my workouts will be changing after the Myrtle Beach race.  By whom, you ask? Well, after training myself several times, I decided that I wanted to go full force and have a coach.  I belong to the running group, Without Limits, and I have a training plan that has been specifically designed for me.  It does cost a bit, but after training myself on other people’s plans, I wanted to bring the level up a notch.  I never knew exactly what pace to run at, and I didn’t know how far to push myself.  There’s been injury and then the desire to do triathlons as well, so I figured this would be as good of time to have a coach as any.  I’m very glad I chose this route considering how my training has gone (injury and then definite improvement in speed and then there’s that swimming thing that I mentioned above) and it’s one of those “no-brainer” things.  I never have to worry about what I’m doing and how fast, as I’m just told, then based on my feedback, I get my next week’s workout.  I know I can’t do this for every race, but I wanted to step up my game, and give the Boston Marathon my best shot, so here we go! I would recommend this for anyone because it gives you more insight on what you maybe doing or not doing, and in a social aspect, it’s great to have running buddies to push you!

So that, my friends, is the making of my week of workouts and where I get them. I have one day off per week, but I’ve never felt like I’m burned out, I’m too tired, that I want another rest day.  Actually, I enjoy the variety and the social interaction, the daily challenge of it all. I have a race in just a few weeks, a race that I plan to test my abilities and training, and I believe that everything that I’m doing will lead up to an outcome that I can be proud of: my absolute best effort.