Tuesday, May 11, 2010

And We Begin!

Yesterday marked 22 weeks before the Towpath Marathon. What does that mean? I officially start training! Yay! The training schedule called for some cross training on Monday, so I went to yoga. I finally bought my own mat! It's a Gaiam 5mm Premium yoga mat and to be honest, I wasn't that happy with it. The yoga class I went to was in the Hot studio, which is about 90 degrees. Needless to say, I was sweating a lot which made the mat very slippery. I had to continually adjust my poses as my hands and feet slid out of position. Maybe I can return it and no one will notice that it was used, haha. Despite the slipperiness, the mat was pretty comfy. It's really thick, but not thick enough to cause you to lose balance. I think it's a good mat if you're not working in a 90 degree room!

Today I ran 3 miles and the schedule for the rest of the week calls for 4 miles on Wednesday, 3 miles on Thursday with a break on Friday, cross training on Saturday, and 5 miles on Sunday. Phew! I'm tired already! My shins have been bothering me again. But not that bad. I'm still convinced that if I get my butt to the store and buy a new pair of shoes, I'll be ok. I think my shoes have around 300 miles on them.

I came up with a few new running routes as my old ones were getting pretty boring. I've had the same 3 mile route since last fall so I don't get too excited to run it these days. I did try to run it in reverse on Saturday which made it more interesting. I ran a longer route in reverse in the winter time, and I actually got lost! Whoops! I like to use gmap-pedometer.com to come up with my running routes. It's pretty cool, check it out!

I think switching routes makes the runs much more exciting, not only because of the view, but because of the terrain. If you keep running the same route, your body is going to eventually get used to it and you might not benefit as much. Maaaaaaaaybe. Don't take my word for that. When I run a new route, I feel like I got more of a workout. Placebo effect?

I'm still nervous to train for a marathon. I'm not convinced that I can stick with it, but I'm going to prove myself wrong! Let's see.. things in my life that I have tried and ultimately quit: basketball in 5th grade (quit before our first game), softball in 7th or 8th grade (quit after a couple practices because the coach, my best friend's dad "criticized" my swing. I guess I'll use whatever excuse I can come up with!), track in 11th grade (I actually completed a season but didn't sign up the following year), ice skating, swimming, etc. Ugh, I'm pathetic! Haha.

In other news, my mom said that my butt and legs look more toned from running and yoga. I guess that's another benefit from all of this exercise. Yeahhhhh, that's right. I'm bringing the sexy back! Wait, did I just say that? I apologize for that. No, I don't.

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