No Progress

I didn't do anything yesterday. Life happens like that. Still taking my rest day today and will go at 'em tommorrow. Getting pumped up for my first 5K on the 4th.

Wednesday June 28

Just so you'd know, I did run today. I did three laps around the park and shaved off about 30 seconds. I tried to run as hard as I could at the last stretch, but ran out of breath -- twice. But I think that helped me to realize that speed will come. Just need to focus on the aerobic activity. So one more day to go and Friday is a rest day.

Tuesday -- June 27

Well, I completed the three miles today and surprisingly my aches went away. The run actually helped me out a lot. I also bumped up my run walk ratio to 4:1 intervals. A friend suggested that I walk from the house to the park where I start as my warm-up, stretch and start my time once I start running. When I did that I clocked it at 0:39:40. My speed is creeping up. Since I am a lover of numbers, I went back to a cool website to calculate my pace for the day. It averaged to be around 13:13 min/mile. So there is a small piece of improvement. We'll take all the small victories that we can. Besides the morning was gorgeous. The temperature had to be around high 60s loow 70s. I think that helped out a lot too. Hanging in there. Thanks for stopping by.

The Twelve Miler...

Our group training this time was pretty special. We completed two laps around Forest Park and no body was carried away in the ambulance. :). However, when I got home, I felt like I was hit by a truck and am sore today too. But it's a good kind of sore, if that makes sense...

I'm up to 3.5 minutes of running and 1.5 minutes of walking, and finished my two laps in 2:41. It's roughly 6 miles per lap so at this pace, I'm roughly around 14 minutes/mile. Still room for improvement. But the Chicago Marathon is not until October 22 and this is training. We'll get there.

Our coach, Pat, is awesome! She wants us to finish the race in 6 hours so both Kwabe and I have a lot of work to do on our speed. This week, I'm going to increase my running by 30 seconds. I know it doesn't sound like a lot, but considering 4 months ago, I felt as if I was going to collapse after 30 seconds of running, I feel like an Olympian.

I tell you, it has only been by the grace of God that all of us has made it this far. Our group is so jazzed. Please keep us all in your prayers.

I'll post again soon.

Marathon Training So Far

First, I want to say, I can't believe I am training for a marathon....

Hello Everyone and welcome to my marathon journal. Right now I just wanted to catch everyone up on what is going on with this whole marathon thing.

I started my training in February. My first steps were on Valentine's Day. My dear friend Rhonda pushed me out of the house, in the cold, and we ran (she ran, I walked) around my neighborhood. Our group from church was scheduled to start the group trainings in March, and I wanted to get a head start.

In March we started off with our two mile group run and the commraderie was great. It had to be about 25 people meeting. Everyone was so jazzed. Then, I got shin splints and pretty much sat out training for a while.

By April, I was back and determined. The group was dwindling but the momentum was there. Then in May, my dear husband joins me. By this time our group runs are now at 6 miles and our group was down to about 10. I was surprised that I did six miles in 1.5 hours considering in February I couldn't even run one minute. Now, I was running about one minute and walking one minute.

Yet, that was not working fo me. I was barely catching my breath until it was time to run again. So now I have a different strategy and it seems to be working well. I'm utilizing 5 minute blocks where I am trading 30 seconds of walking each week for running. I am currently at 3 minutes of running (or shall I say jogging) and 2 minutes of walking. All is well.

So that's just a little bit to get you caught up. I'll expand more later.