Happy Monday!

I continue to feel great and am *so excited* about that. I'm still just a teeny bit stiff. But it's that good "I exercised and I'm sore" feeling. I've been waiting for that! I guess finally my body has just caught up to everything and I've figured out exactly how far I can push myself and still live to tell about it. It's such a difference from my recovery after the half. I was DEAD for several days. And just hurt like the dickens. But, I've run that distance (and then some) again twice. So maybe my body isn't protesting it like it did the first time. Progress. Saturday's miles were almost a half marathon and a 5k. Who on earth would have ever thought that I would run 16 miles. Ever. In a day. At one time. WOO HOO!!!

I did pilates this morning and that felt good. Lots of s-t-r-e-t-c-h-i-n-g. Nice.

I read in the Galloway marathon book a lot about walk breaks. We have been utlizing that strategy with the walk/run intervals since the beginning of the training. I kind of thought it was more like a "oh I can only run this far and need a break" kind of thing. But there really is a physical reason to do this. According to the running guru, walk breaks vary the use of your muscles so they keep their 'bounce' as they conserve resources. By walking early on in the race, you avoid using up your resources early. Alternating the exertion level and the way you use your running muscles gives them a chance to recover before they accumulate fatigue. So it reduces the damage to the muscle and, in turn, leads to a quicker recovery after the long run. By alternating running and walking muscles, you distribute the workload among a variety of muscles. To receive maximum benefit from the walk break, you must start them early (even during the first mile) before you feel fatigue. If you wait until you feel the need for a walk break, you've already reduced your potential performance. Walk breaks "earn you a discount" early in the run from the pounding on legs and feet. He even says that serious marathoners have made drastic improvements in their time by taking walk breaks early and often. It's better to take a 1 minutes break every 5 minutes than a 5 minute break every 25 minutes. It leads to quicker and more effective recovery.

That's all probably more than you wanted to know....but it's my blog so I can write about whatever I want to! But the use of walk breaks was something that definitely helped me recover from Saturday's sixteen miler. Learning about the reason for the walk breaks is just more learning and education on training and running. And that's a piece of my marathon training pie. Which I am sharing with you, my faithful readers! I really thought this whole 'run a marathon thing' was just go out there and run 26.2 miles. Hardly. For something so simple, it sure has a lot of pieces to it.

Happy Monday everybody! Hope you have a good day!

Aloha and Ole'!

I exchanged my defective DVDs on Sunday and thought I'd do the abs workout today. It was originally a 4 mile day, but the schedule had to be altered to let the inflammation settle down a bit. So, I figured I'd at least do something.

This DVD looked like it had been filmed in Hawaii. We did our exercises by the roaring surf. Her mat was even surrounded by volcanic rock. How quaint. Anna Abs led us in some of the hardest exercises I've ever done. Wow. The picture on the cover of the box is very deceiving because most of the time we had our legs stretched out like that, our hands were on our ankles, not down on the mat. "Now hold....." Are you kidding me?!?! I don't think the human body is meant to be folded like taco shell for minutes on end. But maybe with practice, I'll get there.

Am scheduled to get another cortisone patch today. Hope it helps.

It's Tuesday

Pilates for me this morning. I still need to go exchange my duplicate DVD. I also think I'm going to get a new DVD too. I'm a bit tired of "pushing through the thick molasses".

Training schedule for the rest of the week:

• Wednesday - 4 miles
• Thursday - 3 miles
• Friday - rest
• Saturday - 7 miles

It's all about the accessories

Thought I'd share a picture of my fancy new running shoes. It's hard to see, but there are little flames on the sides of the shoe. I thought that might make me go faster. Or at least give the appearance of going faster. Maybe it's a new nickname for me. Like Flaming Feet or Feet Afire or something like that. What was the name of that running movie - Chariots of Fire? Hmmmm.

Still some pain in my legs - even today, which is an off day. I did Pilates this morning, so maybe that stretching will help. I'm a bit bummed, because I had bought a 2 DVD set - one was lower body and one was abs. So this morning, I'm thinking I'll try the one for abs. But it was the same DVD as the lower body one - the 'Push your way through thick molasses' one.... So now I have two of those. Will need to return that set I guess. In the meantime, I've become pretty adept at what Polly Pilates is trying to get me to do.



I also got a neat little gadget the other day to "add instant visibility". It's a 2-piece thing with a strong magnet - so the blinking part goes on the outside of your jacket or shirt and the back goes on the inside. And then the little LED light just blinks so cars will see you while you are running in the dark. I used this yesterday for the first time. And was sadly reminded again that there are no cars at 4 in the morning.....

Maybe not my cup of Pi-la-TEA

I am supposed to "cross-train" on the off days of non-running. I can barely acknowledge that I am training, much less cross-training. Anyway, the list of suggested activities included swimming, eliptical, Pilates, etc. How hard could the Pilates be? Some stretching, some leg lifts. Plus, it would be easy to just go buy a DVD at Target. Which is just what I did.

It was just a little odd. First of all, the women were laying in this meadow by a little stream in the Swiss Alps or something. I was waiting for Julie Andrews to show up and start singing. I was supposed to find my 'powerhouse' - which I'm not sure what or where that is - and then 'engage it'. Something about my abdomen, pelvic floor and buttocks......

Well, I made it through the DVD. Thirty minutes of stretching and lifting and rolling around on the floor. "inhale...flex....two...up....release.....exhale....three". WHAT??!?!! There were a few minutes where the threat of hyperventilating became very real. I got real messed up on the inhales and exhales. At one point, she said to "push through the thick molasses". I laughed out loud at that one.

I'll try it again. Maybe I'll get better and get the hang of it. In the meantime, I have to find my powerhouse........

Progress made:
Tried new activity.
Starting to send out fundraising letters and email.