SPEED DRILLS!

While going to school for school purposes was horrendous (So glad I'm done!!!), I am so grateful to Roosevelt for honoring free gym access for life to its alumni. Boom! In the interest of not getting caught in a thunderstorm yesterday after work, I decided to take my speed training indoors to the treadmill. It was a great workout!

Although the gym is small, there is never anyone in there.  When I'm alone, I close the door and sing at the top of my lungs between breaths.  When there are people there, as two were yesterday, I get excited because I act like I am being watched: performing, if I may.  Hehehe. There's no better motivator than knowing someone is peeking to see how fast you're going or for how long.  Oh, and I LOVE it when I stay on the treadmill longer than the person next to me.  It may be petty, but again, whatever motivates, right?

I digress.  So, with an audience of two watching from the weight benches, I tackled those speed drills like CrrrAzy! It felt so good and my calves and arms are sore this morning - the sign of a good workout.  30 second sprints, 1:30 recovery. Repeat a gazillion times.

Today, my office is having a 5K over lunch that I'll be running (possibly in the rain).  Should be fun!

10 miles surrounded by flowers

I normally LOVE flowers. I love planting them, putting them in vases, hanging from my window boxes...but boy did I hate them yesterday. If the change in the weather (i.e. cool dry air to warm humid) wasn't enough to make yesterday's run unbearable, the blooming trees killed me! I would finally get into a groove after a few minutes of jamming out to my music when BAM! The fresh floral scent would kit me, restrict my breathing and cause me to sneeze.  My legs of led already slow from hill sprints earlier in the week could not handle the lack of oxygen and would finally slow to a walk.

My one achievement: I finished! And that's what training is all about. I played with the idea of calling to have Phil pick me up at one of the forest preserve entrances and had to almost slap my hand away from dialing his number on my phone. Although I was slow, although I was miserable, although I was sweaty and low on water, I finished the run. I pray that marathon day is not like this, but I know now that even if it is, I'll keep going.

http://runkeeper.com/user/Kikimole/activity/36336165

Start at the half, then....X-train!

After doing a few weeks in a row of 10 mile runs, I decided I needed a little more of a challenge.  So, I set out to run 13 miles on Saturday and guess what! I finished! Wow...two days before training officially begins and I'm already half way there! Woohoo!

So, today on my official first day of training I decided to cross train: Xtreme Trampoline! Yes, there was a fear that I would break and ankle....or my head, but it also sounded like a whole lot of fun.  Who doesn't like foam pits that you can barely climb out of? Or jumping off the walls? literally.

Wow. It really was a workout and boy, am I sweaty. But, I cooled off with my first visit to Oberweis with some delicious black cherry ice cream.

So, my first day of training probably isn't what most people would expect, but hey, I'm half way there already so I feel like I have a little wiggle room.  But back to running tomorrow!

A few days until training begins!

I cannot believe that I am doing this...  What am I thinking? A full marathon? 

I told myself when I first started running that I would never do this; that running 26.2 miles was too hard on your body and it wasn't worth it.  Half marathons were the perfect distance.  Now look at me: 2 years later and signed up for the 2011 Chicago Marathon.  

And when I signed up in February, the beginning of training seemed so far away! Now I just realized that my training starts this upcoming Monday in 3 days! 

So, what am I going to do about these nerves? Get them out by blogging! 

So...here we go.