Slow progress

Did my version of speed session , 30 min.

Started with 5 min warmup walking at 2.8mph, did 1min sessions at 4.2, 4.4, 4.6 ,4.8mph and finally 5mph intervals with 3mph inb/w. Did this for 20 min and then a cool down at 2.8mph for 5 min.
Each week I am planning to do one such session in the hopes of increasing my baseline speed.
Its all in the numbers- there are some people who run the whole marathon at 5 min a mile and then there are some like me who aim to run at 5 mph.
Anyway I am doing something and if nothing else, because of this marathon training, I have something concrete to look forward to each day. The laundry, cooking, cleaning, the daily rut of a job, life passes by in those chores. The marathon preparation , the running community, the running blogs, the raaces, thats something I do for myself.

XT- weights and stretches.

Did a short walk to get my 6yo from GB's house. While going, the 0.8 mile was a fast walk, while coming played 'I-spy' with her on the way, and took slightly longer.

Later did free weights and 5 min of stomach exercises. Am apple shaped and since starting the running , it seems as if that shape is more pronounced. Everywhere I read , it says that walking/running more than 45 min a day should help in losing that region faster. Of course, it has to be combined with healthy eating too , which is the one thing I just cannot seem to do. I have started the weights and the stomach exercises in the hope that the soreness from that will be a reminder to eat less- weird, I know! No one likes to do the crunches and the abwork, but it helps, so this is what I did:
1) 15 bicycle crunches each side
2) 15 boat repititions-I dont know the exact name, but its a Pilates exercise in which you raise your arms and legs off the floor together for 10 seconds each time.
3) 10 upper ab crunches.
4) 10 pelvic tilts, tho those feel so good after the above that I dont consider tham exercise.

Gradually will build upto 2 sets of 15 each.

Free weights, I did 2 sets of:
1) biceps curls
2)hammer curls
3) 20 heel raises
4) 10 squats
5) triceps
6) side arm raises
7) front arm raises
I do these fast so that can usually finish both the sets in 12-15 min

Thats good , isnt it? Any feedback??

LSD alone

4.71m in 1hr13min.

Went alone- GB didnt want to, my husband offered, but in the morning couldnt wake up in time, My father wanted to but wasnt ready by 6AM.

I am doing some thing wrong , running outside definately feels harder and I am unable to maintain the pace of the treadmill runs. I walked the first mile, started out slowly in the 2nd mile to run, but the 1 min run felt harder so that I walked slower in between the running. I have to work on increasing my walking speed now.

But it was a beautiful morning, I am glad i started out at 6 AM, I spose by June/July I will be starting out at 5.30 AM.

Early AM workouts

Woke up early this AM and did 45 min on the tmill followed by 20 minof yoga.Now am free to break the couch for the rest of the day. I dont know when I got out of this habit of finishing the day's activity in the morning, most probably during the daylight saving time. Then realised theres still 6 months left before we go back to the winter time , which was easier for me, so might as well get into the routine of waking up early in the morning again. I still cant get over the fact that I dont have to work around the familys schedules to get in my exercise.

Was able to run some, but the yoga session after was heavenly, felt so loose and supple- after a long time. Did sun salutations -3 times , hoping to build it upto 12. Last time was doing 10 at a time and then stopped, dont know why.

XT tomorrow- yoga, weights and a walk in the evening.

How it all started......

Six months back, I was kind of bored with my life and wanted to try out something different. Had been reading about blogs lately, about how people use blogs to put across their ideas, some make money and how some people have made a business out of it. So one fine evening, mentioned this to NB with the proposal that I'll create a blog and she can write something on it, idea in my mind being that since she wrote journals, maybe she liked writing and maybe she could write daily on my blog which would make me some money or plainly keep me occupied as I was venturing in the world of blogs.

The next day she stops by my house with the idea of how both of us would run a marathon and we could create a blog about it just to log our progress. ?? run?? a marathon?? Stopp! I was talking 'blog' the night before, not 'marathon'. I was twice reluctant - not a great idea for a blog and no way I wanted to run a marathon. NB thought it was a wonderful idea and she always wanted to run a marathon - it was her dream. Me, being the nice woman I am, told her that I'll create the blog for her and maintain it while she can run and log HER progress and ofcourse I didnt want to have anything to do with the marathon. Well, she insisted that it would be so much easier and fun if we could do it together. I began secretly thinking that maybe I could lose some of my pounds along the way if nothing else and so, being the nice woman I am....

I didnt know what I was getting myself into. One month into it I realised that its the other way around 'you dont lose weight while preparing for a marathon, but if you want to run a marathon, you have to lose weight'. So there I was with no incentive at all, my blog money making idea down the drain, and every part of my body hating me.

I am 5 feet 3 inches tall, recently (around 9 months back, 3 months before the start of the marathon preparation) gaining around 15 pounds to be around 180 pounds. This is the weightiest I have been in my life and I do not like it :(. I have never been skinny but overweight (yes, I know, I am obese now) all my life. I have never run in my whole life (I am 35) till 6 months ago

So there I was, running this half marathon yesterday, wondering what I was doing on those lonely roads, what I was going to get out of this, but mainly and surprisingly thinking about how I had to lose weight if I wanted to run the marathon in October. I announced this to NB too, I really want to lose weight before I run the marathon in October else it would be foolhardy. Now, the only reason I want to run the marathon is that if some years later I am depressed at any time, this will count against me (Oh! and you couldnt even run a marathon) - I wont remember at that time that I didnt WANT to run a marathon. Another small reason, atleast IMHO, is that it is much easier to run with somebody, so NB may need me at marathon time ;). Yesterday, during the half marathon, in the last couple of miles, I saw many single ppl just falling behind with nobody to push them on, and I was thinking - had NB not been with me, I would have taken my own sweet time...

In the ideal case, it would be wonderful if NB's husband volunteered to run the marathon with her and start training with her, so that I can back out with some excuse and not feel guilty for not running the marathon. But that is not to be, her husband says no - I have been proactive and discussed this with him today, but he is not interested :(
So, I dont know, I'll focus on losing weight, if running becomes easier, I'll continue else will quit with some excuse ;).

WE did it, half-marathon done!!

So we are done with the half marathon.

13.1 miles in 3hours21min, 15.13 mph, r/w the first 10 miles , then mostly walked.

Beautiful day. All my apprehensions about running in the sun resolved by the time we reached the site at 7AM. Good arrangements for parking, atleast a 100 portapotties at the start site, you know thats the most important part in the beginning.

Got our packets, nice white t-shirt with the logo, nice white backpack. Kept all that in the car and filled my pocket with the trailmix I had bought yesterday, shared a banana with GB, looked around, some people were actually running around-trying to warmup??, why would you use your energy to warmup before the actual run??, I mean you can warmup during the run, cant you, Some people are just plain crazy- or not , is my conclusion now after the run. We did a few stretches and 15 min before the race took our spot in the 14minmile corral. The fact that there was no 15minmile corral should have told us to change over to the walkers group pronto but one-we were not thinking at this point and two , the walkers had already started off an hour earlier.

Surrounding us were very fit, very lean, very prepared looking runners. We clutched our fanny packs and turned this way and that , trying to look as if we ran half marathons on a monthly basis. The gun went off and so did we.
In the beginning it seemed as if were passing everybody, the lean guy with 10 small water bottles in his fanny belt, the overweight guy with his slim lady friend, the 2 elderly ladies belonging to a running group. GB wanted to do 5 minW/10minR. We did that session once or twice and came down to run till you are out of breath, walk till you can breathe again and then run some more. Not a good strategy.
Later on I realised we had started out too fast so that by mile 7 all the above mentioned people passed us. Around at this time our pace came down from 14minmile to 15min mile. By mile 9 we had lost sight of a running group we were following trying to imitate their walk/run sessions. By mile 10 the only one in front of us was a young couple who had more steam than us yet and a young guy who seemed as if he was strolling in the park. By mile 11 I had given up the R/W sessions and was trying only to walk consistently. By mile 12 I hated this whole world and all this marathon business. By mile 13 GB found her lost stamina and wanted me to push and cross the young couple and an elderly lady before them. I asked her to carry on but she waited for me and then we ran the last 0.1 mile together over the chip mat.
Finish time 3hours 21 min.

We walked over to get the finishers medal, its beautiful, got our water, chocolatechip cookies, subway sandwich, missed the orange flavored popscisles , because believe it or not we were too late!. I just could not stand straight at this point so we took ourselves under a shady tree, GB got a blanket and we flopped on it. Believe me in the whole day, that was the most heavenly moment I had. No major aches and pains, only the top of my feet and the toes are really sore, I am hoping its no stress fractures .

We are not last overall , tho I am last in my age group. GB pointed out that if we had been in the walkers gorup we would have been in the first 100. But I had confirmed that if we were going to be running even a bit we had to be in the runners group. And we did pretty good till mile 8-9, when we ran out of steam. I am sure the lack of the last LSD of 14 miles and low mileage in this last month has something to do with it.

Lessons learnt:
--I need to get in all my runs and XT sessions to build the stamina.
--We need to have a strategy, slow first, R/W at set intervals etc. Tried discussing this with GB this morning and she refuses to even think about the marathon at this point. She did tell me that she had started out too fast because I was mumbling something about being "last" and 'being passed by everybody else" What she forgets each time is that she is the official pace -setter of our group, I have no idea at what speed I am running , so I do what she tells me to-its all her fault.
--Food , pre-run, post-run, during the run, hydration etc was good, so no changes there.

Overall great experience, one day later, feeling good, all set to start the marathon preparation!!

No motivation

Bad day to get lazy, demotivated, feeling down, as if not worth it,dont know.

Was all set to do todays workout, but 13yo had soccer practice, so left her and got her, and the hubby hogged the treadmill, and I tried to get on it later, but then gave up trying to work past all the roadblocks.
I know, lame excuses all of them, but this one workout is not going to make or break the half for me(hopefully!!). I just have to get past my own mind which at this last minute is trying to play games with me.I have gone over my whole log and know that I have a somewhat good base, I did do most of the workouts as given by J.Galloways plan. Lets see what I missed- one LSD of 14 miles and maybe 2-3 other workouts. I am keeping my fingers crossed that I am able to finish this. I know I am going to be the last as the race is very small, just in its 2nd year. But its a flat course and theres no time limit so that should help.

Thanks Bobbiejo, at your recommendation did go on running room forums and they have some good discussions going on there. I visited that site approx 3-4 months ago and it did not have that much traffic then. But that is one site I will visit more often for the positive people on there.

Have tomorrow to get back into running mindset. Lets see.