'get off your butt and on with your training'



I recently finished reading a book in preperation for training for the half marathon I will complete in June, 2011. The book, The Non-Runner's Marathon Guide For Women, Get off Your Butt and On With Your Training, is a very matter of fact look at the mind set, ups and downs, and insanity of training for a long distance run. The realistic humor left me laughing out loud throughout just about every chapter in the book.

It is complete with a training guide for both a half-marathon and full-marathon.

The program I will be following is a 20 week plan with the end being race day! Since it is more than 20 weeks from my race day I will be spending the next 8 weeks doing a combination of running, walking, eliptical machine, weights, and P90X videos in prepartion for the training program. My goal during the next 2 months is to increase my endurance, become more familiar with running, gets used to working out regularly, lose weight, and gain strength.

Last night I had the joy of completing my first official training day. This was not a very long workout considering I had to work night shift just after but it was not easy to say the least. I used the treadmill in my apartment complex gym and ran/walk 2 miles which took me 29 minutes (pathetic if you ask me, but that's why it's called training...right?). I went a max speed of 5.5 mi/hr while running and probably walked half and ran half. While running i focused on keeping my upper body relaxed, my breathing patterns, running technique and tried to ignore that my lungs felt like they were burning and my neck hurt. Over time i hope my body will hurt less, to increase my speed, and length of time running. On an exciting note, over the past 3.5 weeks i have lost 5 lbs and feel great! It's rewarding to know my increased efforts are giving some sort of pay off!