Ahh Friday – the undisputed Gold medalist in every event it competes in. T-Minus 2 hours to the weekend folks….we made it!
I want to start off today’s post by wishing the happiest of birthdays to my Matthew!! 28 years young today, and still looking like a spring chicken!! Happy Birthday my love!!
I know I’ve taken quite a detour from my regular blog training chatter the last couple of months. The holidays followed immediately by my 25th birthday got me in kind of a reflective mood, and a bit of that kind of spilled over onto the blog. If that kind of stuff isn’t your cup of tea (and you prefer to read about me touching old people in appropriately in swimming pools)….you’re in luck, because it’s time to put the hammer down and get serious about training again!! Time is ticking!!
I’m freaking out a bit (what else is new) because if I look back at my blog posts from this time last year, I had been swimming for nearly three months, and attending spin classes on a weekly basis. This year, as of today, January 23rd 2014, I’ve done absolutely squat nothing for the Half IronMan.
Hmm……
I don’t know if I’m labouring under the notion that completing the race once (by the skin of my teeth) gives me the luxury of half-assing training, but I’ll tell you this: I can paint a pretty vivid description of my race day for you if I carry on the way that I am now. And the picture is one that may or may not scare your children. If you catch my drift.
I’m struggling a bit with trying to ramp up my running as well. I’ll give myself the credit of saying that every Sunday for four weeks in a row now; I’ve gone down into our basement and run for a minimum of half an hour on the treadmill.
*Insert high five for Sara here*
The longest run I did was about 10K, the shortest was 5K. I’ve been feeling good running, but I know that I need to get my distance up way beyond 10K; and I also know that I don’t have an abundance of time to do it.
I’m trying to stay focused on my first “stepping stone” (side note – I’m so glad that I wrote that post – I refer back to it so often in so many aspects of my life) which is the Chilly Half Marathon on Sunday March 2nd. To be honest with you, although I’ve run several half marathons (6 to be exact – how that happened, I’ll never know), standing at the start line, I’ve never really truly feel prepared for the race. I always find a way to get through it, but I think some of that is more “oxe-like stubbornness”, and less actual athletic ability.
The first “stepping stone” for me in achieving my goal of finishing the San Diego marathon is to stand at the start line for the Chilly Half knowing that I’ve trained properly, and that my body is 100% ready and prepared to run 21km strong all the way to the finish line.
And THAT seems totally manageable.
Part of the struggle with running (as it always has been for me) is keeping my joints healthy while I’m running on top of the classes that I teach.
If “Les Mills fitness classes” and “Running” were both on Facebook, they would not be friends. In fact, they probably would annoy each other so much that they would have blocked and deleted each other by now.
Without fail, as soon as I start adding on a regular run to my weekly routine, one of my knees goes down for the count. I can’t predict which one, it changes all the time. This time has been no different, and I’ve been nursing a really sore right knee all week.
It doesn’t at all help that it’s Release Week at the gym and I’m teaching 13 classes this week, but hey, what can ya do.
I guess my struggle is knowing how to handle aches and pains like this one. Do I push through and run on it anyways? Do I take the week off running and try to just make it through my classes? My fear with the second option is that there is always going to be something nagging and aching, and if I responded to every one of them by taking the week off from running, then I would never run!
I’m guessing that (as usual), the right plan lies somewhere right in the middle of the two extreme options. I probably can’t take the week off running completely, and I probably shouldn’t be doing a full blast sprint workout either. Maybe a bit slower, more relaxed run would be the right thing to do. Followed by a whole lot of TLC for the knee of course.
I wanted to wrap up today’s post by giving you a quick update on my fundraising efforts for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society! If you remember, part of my BHAG is to cross the finish line of the marathon in one piece, but the other part of my BHAG is to achieve my fundraising goal of $5,000 for the LLS.
I’ve been completely and totally blown away by the generosity of everyone that I know. So far, with very little effort on my part, I’ve raised $1,315 towards my $5,000 goal, and I have some plans in the works for making up that remaining $3,700.
First of all – I’ve planned a shopping party to take place on Thursday March 6th at a local yoga clothing store in my hometown. The amazing store (Lole Atelier) has agreed to give all customers that night a 30% discount, and I’m going to be bringing in catering as well for shoppers to snack on. I’ve been working on gathering as many amazing prizes as I can for a silent auction, with 100% of the proceeds going towards my fundraising efforts for the LLS.
I’m really excited for the shopping party, and am really hopeful that it will bring me a big step closer to the ultimate goal.
My brother by the way is doing fantastically well! He’s at home, and needs to put on about 40 pounds (oh if I only had that problem…), but otherwise is right as rain! His bloodwork is good, and initial screens show no signs of Leukemia. Hurray!
I’ll leave you today with the link to my fundraising page for the LLS, if you are looking to start your weekend off with a good deed, then here’s a wonderful opportunity to donate to a cause very near and dear to my heart!
Thanks for your support – and have a great weekend everyone!!
Going The Distance 