Plans Change… We Must Adapt

We all know that even the best laid plans must be altered due to unforeseen circumstances. But, that doesn’t make it any less annoying!!

As you may remember, I have committed to running a marathon this year as one of my resolutions. I would love to do the New York City Marathon, but chances are slim that I’ll win that lottery. So, I had decided that my back-up plan would be the St. Augustine Marathon in November. Well, imagine my surprise when I went to their webpage to check the date and registration information and there’s NO MARATHON!!!! WHAAT?!? Yeah, this year they are only having a 5K, 10K and 21K (or half marathon). BUMMER!!! So what’s a marathon girl to do? Well, I went searching for another marathon, and the only thing I can find that works with my schedule is the Disney Marathon in January, 2013. Does this mean my resolution is a bust already? That depends on how you think about it. I like to say it’s an issue of semantics. Will I have completed the marathon by December 31, 2012? No, but I will have trained for it, and that’s the hard part! Right?

The other change is in the P90X Training program I’m doing. I’m into week 3 and I truly believe it’s working, but I’m a little bored. Oh, and Tony’s voice is grating on my last nerve!!! Yeah, I’ve hit my wall, not with the program but with him. So I’ve decided to not do the video and just do the exercises on my own. And, I even created my own plyometric, interval and ballet workout routines to replace his plyo, shoulders & arms and that stinking kenpo routines.  So, is it really even P90X? Technically, no, but I’m much happier because I don’t have to listen to his voice anymore!!! And my workouts are way harder than his! Stay tuned… I may post my workouts at some point. I have to make sure they work first!!!

2012 Training Plan

First of all, yes, I’m still doing P90X… week 2 is well underway!! I’m still eating clean (or clean enough for me) and logging my food and exercise. You’ve got to love progress!!! I get so inspired when my training plan works! With that in mind, I realized that I needed to sort out my plans for the rest of the year. Yep, I said YEAR! See, I’ve committed to run in the Disney Wine & Dine Half Marathon in November with my nieces AND I have the St. Augustine Marathon, which also falls in November. YIKES! So, it was time for me to organize my training schedule. My biggest fear was that these races would fall on the same weekend. But, alas, Disney posted the date for the half and it’s November 10th!!! YAY!! This is a week before the marathon… Pheeww!! Ideally, I should be tapering the week before the marathon, but I’ll just make it work.

So, when figuring out a training schedule, I work backwards. I start on M-Day (Marathon day) and work in the reverse to figure out when to start my training. BUT, I’m also trying to work in the P90X workouts. Yeah, go ahead and say it… OVERACHIEVER!!! I’m thinking that this combination will give me that added strength to succeed at my marathon challenge. I found a plan I like somewhere on the internet. It was a pdf of a Nike Running plan and had beginner, intermediate and advanced levels. So last night I painstakingly entered this plan into my iCal, working in the reverse. I was so proud when I finally finished and my iCal looked all full and busy-like. Then, I went web surfing this morning and found the Nike Running Training site, which allows you to enter the date of your race and it will calculate your plan for you!!! UGH! AND… it will import it into your calendar!!! REALLYY?!?! I couldn’t have found this BEFORE I wasted an hour or so of my life?

Anyway, I officially start training for my marathon in the beginning of May, which happens to be my birthday week! How perfectly appropriate!!! So from now until May, I will continue with P90X, round 1, which will end April 15th. And I may try my own workout from then until May. Or, if I can stand it, I’ll do P90X, round 2! Stay tuned!!!

Disney Princess Half Marathon

Hello! I know its been a very long time, but I’m still hitting the pavement! In fact, we just signed up to run in the Disney Princess Half Marathon!!! WWWOOOHHHOOOO!!!! Are we ready to run 13.1 miles? Hell NO!!! But, we should be ready to run/walk. We even made a plan! No, really… we have a plan!!! And we’ve been training according to the plan. We are going to run the first and last mile and then we are going to do a 3minute run and a 2minute walk!!! We’ve been doing this for a few weeks now and it’s actually REALLY FUN! It’s like my Mother-in-law always said…everything is more fun when you make a game of it! So make a game of it we will do!!!!

Stay tuned for more updates on our Princess Half!! Including the ever important wardrobe question…what ever does a princess wear to run a half marathon? You’ll even be able to vote for your favorite outfit!

PS – I have accepted a challenge to post once a day for the rest of the year! So comment my posts with encouragement and ideas! Help keep me writing!!!

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Hot and Humid Running…UGHH!

So as you know, I’ve been a little lazy about running lately! OK REALLY lazy! But… I’m trying!  I did run a 5K charity race on Saturday after NO training! And frankly, IT SUCKED!!! Not the race itself, but my performance! It was SO hot and humid! I know, I know… I live in FLA, I should be used to it. But to run in the sun is just not fun! Now I sound like Dr. Suess… great! Anyway, I had my iPhone with me and had the Nike + app running, but for some reason it didn’t register my pace or distance only my time. FRUSTRATING!!! So at 1 mile there was a sign, and at 1.5 miles there was a water station. But the entire rest of the race was unmarked. I was convinced at about mile 2.5 that we had run at least 5 miles. That’s what I get for not training! I did finish, even though my time wasn’t good! YAY ME!

Now I’m back on my schedule of 1 charity race a month. I figure it’s the only way I can keep myself motivated. I’m actually hoping to do a couple of half marathons in the fall! Notice I didn’t say FULL! Yes… I still have it in my head to someday run a full marathon, but for now I’ll stick with my halfs. I just want to keep my knees healthy and after my training injury, I decided to take it really slow! Really, really slow! So, I’m starting with an easy 3 days a week 4 miles a day schedule. This should get me through to summer. Then I’ll kick it up a little and add some extra miles! Because I love to run in 120ºF temps! 🙂 The sun beating down, and the sweat stinging your eyes… you’ve got to LOVE it!!!