A Journey of A Thousand Miles Begins With A Single Step: Marathon Training - Week One

Yes, marathon training.  As in twenty six point freaking two miles.  As in no longer just half crazy.  Seriously.

And that's why we got up at 5:15 on a weekend morning to go run a mountain.  I ran ten miles, to the top of the mountain, down to the lake, around the campground and then back up (which was the worst part) to the car.  I was passed by the park ranger in his pickup several times and saw a bunch of deer (including two spotted fawns).  The GPS watch yelled at me for at least half the run because I was either going to slow on the uphills or too fast on the downhills.  I'll need to set a wider range next time we run the mountain.  However, I managed to average my goal pace of eleven minute miles, despite the mountain in my way, and only took one short walk break on the last big hill.

On top of the mountain after the run - my shirt was soaked!

The other two runs this week were 8 x 400 m for speed work and a three mile tempo run.  I also hit my goal pace on both of these (8:40 and 9:40) .  The husband did the intervals with me since this is the only time our paces match up at all an no one whines.  Except that his knee has been bothering him on the last several runs...

I think my yoga teacher read my mind on Monday.  The entire class was focused on stretching calf muscles.  Since spraining my ankle a little over a year ago, my right calf muscle tends to be incredibly tight.  I should request we work on hamstrings in the next class.  On Saturday, maybe due to the oppressive heat, I decided to attend a hot yoga class.  I realize it doesn't make sense...  I got another pleasant surprise when the fill-in teacher taught the class in a style similar to Bikram.  That style involves holding poses and then coming out to rest between each pose.  In my opinion, it's a better fit for the heat than going through a fast flow.

I had three days of aerial this week.  By the way, if you're ever interested in trying aerial, be prepared to find lots of random bruises all over your body.  That's especially true if you want to do trapeze. Anyway, I finally got some pictures of me on my new apparatus.

Fish on Trapeze

I failed on doing any strength training this week.  It has been kind of a busy one.  Between yoga and aerial, my core and upper body get lots of attention but I really need to work on my lower body.  I think healthy legs might be kind of important to covering twenty six point freaking two miles...