Week One of Marathon Training in the Books!

My first 'official' week of marathon training is in the books. Well, it was actually in the books after my long run last Saturday but I'm just now getting around to recording it. It was a pretty good week. Speed training at the track didn't happen because the coaches were out of town for the holiday but I did get 3 quality runs in, 3 days of strength training and then my long run on Saturday (which by the way, I kind of slacked on as far as meeting my running group...my alarm went off at 5:45, I laughed, turned it off and went back to sleep. I have to get up this Sat though; the miles will be so much easier running with happy people). Hopefully, tomorrow night at the track will go a lot smoother than the first night since I've picked up my training a few notches since then. Anyway, total miles for last week was 25 - 6, 6, 3 then 10. This week, I've done a tempo run of 5 miles, and a great hill workout for 5.5 miles plus 2 strength training days. Tomorrow is another strength day followed by track then I'll put in 3 on Friday. The schedule calls for 10-12 this weekend, I'm hoping for 12.

As far as strength training goes, I've been able to attend the Tuesday/Thursday class at the rec center with the help of a babysitter (I wish I made that much money when I was a babysitter!) and a helpful mother-in-law. For the 3rd day, I've been doing a Jari Love dvd. Have you seen this chick? Holy crap balls. She is seriously kicking my ass. Yes, it's a dvd workout but yes, I swear, it is so tough but in a really good way.

I got her 'Get Ripped' dvd from Netflix to try it out and really loved it. It's non-stop weights with bursts of cardio mixed in. My heart rate was way up and I had to quit 40 minutes in (of a 60 minute workout!) the first time I did it. I went on Amazon to buy it but saw 'Get Extremely Ripped' and thought, "well shit, if I'm getting ripped, I outta just get extremely ripped" right? So I bought that one instead. I tried it out on Monday for the first time. I made it through 45 minutes of the 60 minute tape before I had to quit. I could have made it all the way through but I had a 5-mile run scheduled for that evening and she was trying to kill me with the squats and lunges so I figured I'd better call it a day. In that 45ish minutes, I burned (according to my Polar HR monitor) 358 calories which isn't too shabby. Also, my legs were feeling quite the burn the next day thanks to that and a run. Having said that, I think I preferred the plain 'ol 'Get Ripped' version more. It's actually harder in my opinion because of the cardio bursts. She does a lot of pylo moves which we as runners know are fantastic for building up leg strength. It's crazy hard and you are cussing and dripping with sweat while you are doing it, but it seriously kicks ass.

Ok. So that's about it on the marathon training front. I've been keeping busy taking my kids to and from swim lessons and now this week, golf camp. Summer is flying by. Today, I actually said yes to woopie cushions from 5 Below. Some things never get old. I was laughing like a 9-year-old boy in the store. What was I thinking?