exhaustion

I'm having a hard time keeping my eyes open. And I'm supposed to run 6 miles in an hour. Hmmmm...how am I going to muster up the energy? For the past two days I've run 3 miles in the terrible heat/humidity and then gone straight to boot camp at the gym where I participated in hard-core exercises for an hour. I think 2 days in a row of that has put me over the edge of exhaustion. I was thinking maybe I could put the run off until tomorrow but I don't have any time to run tomorrow at all. And my last day of boot camp is tomorrow and I don't want to do both in one day again. Usually when I feel this way I just tell myself to take it slowly on the run and do a run/walk if I have to. But I have dinner plans immediately following the run and have no extra time to spare. I guess what I will do is take it slowly and if I don't feel the energy pick up at all, I will run 5 miles instead of 6. It's early enough in the training (3.5 weeks into it) that reducing one run by one mile is not going to make a difference. I just need to make sure I don't consistently do this during the training or I won't feel ready on marathon day.

bruised calf

Seven days ago I woke up with a large and dark bruise on my calf. I had participated in Boot Camp the night before, so I figured maybe I did something to my muscle. The bruise hasn't changed at all since then, so I had it checked out by a nurse practitioner yesterday. She is fairly certain something happened to my calf muscle. I need to ice it, take ibuprofen, and pray. :) It actually doesn't hurt when I run or exercise, so I haven't slowed down a bit. In fact, since I got the bruise I've gone on a serious hike in the White Mountains and continued to do marathon training and boot camp.

I have noticed that my calves have been really tight lately. I need to stretch them more! I know that stretching is good for you, but I rarely do it. Perhaps this will be the motivation I need. I've never really had a problem with tight calf muscles before, other than when they cramped up during two different marathons. But Succeed S!Caps seemed to solve that problem. I don't think those caplets are going to help *this* problem.

I just hope the bruise goes away soon! It's kind of scary looking.

weight loss

I am in my second week of boot camp at my gym. It began on June 7th and it's a month-long blast of boot camp sessions. There are awesome prizes at the end for the top three people who lose the most percentage of weight. I went into the contest with a great attitude and a determination to win. First prize includes a night at a bed and breakfast on the coast of Maine, a full course dinner, and spa services. Great incentive, right?! Well, despite going to boot camp 3 times per week, training for a marathon, and eating healthy (for the most part), I am not losing any weight. I am working my butt off in all areas (especially at that darn boot camp!) and it's not showing on the scale. My clothes do fit better so what I am thinking is that I am gaining muscle.

As a long distance runner I have lots of endurance and my leg muscles are fairly toned. However, my upper body and core have no strength or tone. AT ALL. It's embarrassing how poorly I do at boot camp at anything involving the core or upper body. But I figure I have got to start somewhere, and I can only improve from here. I do try really hard and give it my all, but some of the exercises are really kicking me in the rear.

Back to weight loss (or lack thereof). I have certainly gotten really frustrated each day I have stepped on the scale. Heck, I've even thought about going back to eating lots of desserts and quitting boot camp. But I won't do either of these things. That's because I have a will and a determination that is stronger than these things. I will be disappointed if I don't win the contest or even if I don't lose weight, but I know deep down that what I am doing is good for me. Perhaps the results will eventually make their way to the scale. For now I just have to remind myself that all of the exercise and healthy eating I am doing is certainly doing my body good.

marathon training begins

I have blogged in June already, but somehow the post did not get published. Oh well! Marathon training started last Monday, June 7th. It's only been a week, but so far so good. This part of marathon training seems easy, with a long run of only 8 miles the first week. Before I know it, those long runs will be in the double digits. In some ways I prefer running longer as then I can go even more slowly than my usual slow pace.

One big change this time around for marathon training is that my cross training has been boosted quite a bit. You see, I signed up for a month-long Boot Camp at my gym and it started the same day as marathon training. So not only am I cross training one day a week like Hal Higdon says, but I'm going to boot camp three times a week. (For those of you who don't know, Hal Higdon is a runner/trainer/author whose training program I follow). Anyway, boot camp is kicking me in the butt but people tell me it's going to help my running. We'll see! The hard part is schedule both my training runs as well as boot camp. My already busy life has gotten that much busier.

I am training for 2 marathons this fall: the Mohwak Hudson River in NY state in October and the Richmond Marathon in Virginia in November. For the NY marathon I am following Hal's regular 18 week marathon training program (Intermediate I) and then after the NY marathon I will follow his program for if you have 5 weeks between marathons. I ran 2 marathons 8 weeks apart in spring, so this will be that much more challenging. But I know I can do it if I just trust Hal's program.

Gotta run...literally. Heading off on a 3 mile lunchtime training run.