Keepin on....

No problem. I don't know if things seem like they are going easier. To be honest...I seriously struggle during the week. I did my 3.5...outside...on Tuesday and it sucked. I have serious issues with the inclines here. It's like achilles area cramps up so tight but I am going to stick with it and stay outside during the week. I guess what is good when I gear up for my long run on the weekend it's by far my best which makes me feel good. And no....I am not losing weight just yet which fustrates me. I feel like certain areas feel a little better but certain pants that I thought would be baggier by now are not. I guess it's only been 3 weeks. I think if we just stick with it, it will all of a sudden start melting off. We'll be doing the marathon in biker shorts and sports bra!! Yeah right but we can hope!! Hope everyone is having a good week. I feel like our fearful leader has abandoned us!!

Thanks Kelsey, that information is good, I think I will try to keep it in mind when I am running and not fret if I miss a day like yesterday (the short 2 miler- I am trying to heal that stupid blister). Today I did the 3.5 and it felt pretty good, it definitely is getting a little easier day by day. The first 3-5 minutes is rough, but then thankfully my knees go numb. Is anyone losing weight doing all this running? I am NOT! and I am pissed! Brian tried to tell me it was because my fat is turning to muscle but I don't buy it and it did not make me feel any better! Lori

I just decided to copy and paste what Sean said. I am going to kind of combine both of them. I want to keep maintaining my times but I am going to kind of throw out the trying to get times faster cause what he is saying is kind of making sense to me. My problem is that I ran outside today and I kept the slower pace but trying to go slow up hills is way hard. I think I am going to try to do my runs during the week outside and then treadmill for the long. Maybe if I am doing the shorter ones with hills and somewhat complete it, it will be easier on me for the long ones and actually be able to complete it. We'll see. It was hard outside I have to admit but it was a nice trail so I am going to stick with it. I will be doing my 5 outside in Cbus though so maybe I'll run into some of you. Glad to see you ladies are still sticking with it.

Hi Kelsey, thats great that your taining for the half marathon. Im thinking about doing the full marathon so maybe I will be down there for that. So they key is to build slowly over time but I guess you only have about 7-8 weeks left so it is getting to be the time when you should be doing a long run once a week. I would just try to run for time now and not worry about how many miles you are running. Settle in to a pace where you can run comfortably for 30min to 45 during the week however many times you run. I really do reccomend every other day to keep your body healthy and yourself motivated. Then on the weekend you should gradually increase your time. At this point I would say 15 minute increments per week would be a good place to start. So this coming weekend I would try to do and hour or an hour 15. Then on Sunday the 24th or Saturday the 23rd try to run an Hour and a half, and remember you should start off very slow, slower than normal, as if it almost feels too slow. You are trying to train your body to burn calories more efficiently for longer periods of time. Make sure you have water or Gatorade with you or out on your course at selected points for your run. The weekend run is the most important. This is the one that will simulate race day the most as you get closer to the half. So to recap, during the week every other day for 30-45 minutes and build your weekend run by 15 minutes each week until the last two weeks before your race. Let me know if you have any other questions. Good luck, Sean.

If you guys have any other questions that you want me to ask him let me know. Hope everyone has a great week!!

Hey Guys, I am still here also. Plugging away...I am trying to stay on track and I was just telling Kacz that I think two weeks has made a world of difference in my tolerance to running. I never would have thought that I would have been able to run three miles without stopping and felt pretty good through it. Slight set-back...got a blister because I tried a stupid pair of new socks that didn't stay up and I rubbed a spot on my achilles. Now I am a little stumped as to how to get around it, I know that sounds really stupid, but I don't want to keep irritating it and yet I don't want to miss a workout. I think tomorrow I am going to ride a recumbent bike. Today I wore my old running shoes hoping they hit my heel in a different spot and it somewhat worked. Any suggestions??? Four miles went pretty good on Sunday and like others out there I am trying to shed minutes because I want to see improvement, but I was thinking that was a good way to go about it, is the marathon guy saying no its not? Anyways, ditto to I love checking in on everyone and it is definitely helping to hear from everyone! Lori

Tramps like us, baby we were born to run...

Still here. One bad week ...made me feel a little pouty, but I ain't quittin'! I am gong to get all my miles in this week and I had a great start today. I feel as though I am making some serious progress in the battle against my ass. My 3.5 (39 min) today was the best run I've had since starting the program. I felt really good the whole way and in the end my legs actually felt like they had something left instead of feeling like dead weight. Olympics 2012 here I come! Ok, maybe not, but hot damn I felt good today, don't know if it will hold up for the rest of the week but a girl can dream...can't she? I hope all of you that haven't reported in aren't thinking about giving up, one bad week doesn't mean you have to quit altogether, just pick up this week and get on with it. I'll be kicking some old lady ass tomorrow night in soccer then back on the road for Thursday, I'll let you know if today's run was just an anomaly or if I'm actually making some progress.

POLO!!!

I was just getting ready to leave a post asking the same thing. I hadn't heard anything lately so I was thinking either I was being too obsessive about it or maybe we have had a few casualties.

I hope everything is going well for everyone. Things with me are going but there are definitely more bad days than good. I have tweaked the schedule a little bit too but keeping the mileage up. I did my 4 miles on Saturday and it felt good. Shaved almost a minute off of my time but I need to stop doing that. I need to keep myself at a more slow steady pace but it's so hard for me not to look at time. I attempted to run outside here and it was impossible. At least through my neighborhood. I am going to attempt a path outside today. A co-worker ran it yesterday and he said the whole path is lined with trees so it's pretty shaded and not so hilly. So wish me luck. I spoke with a friend of mine who is very experienced in marathons. He has done the iron man several times and running a full is not even a problem. I asked him some advice and his advice was similar to the training schedule but there were some differences. He advised to run every other day but mostly focus on time, as in length of time not how fast. And then do the long runs on the weekend and every weekend add 15 minutes to it. If any of you want more info on what he advised cause it sounds more suitable to them let me know and I can send you his message. There's more details to it than that but that's the brief overview if it at all sounds like it interests you. I think in the end it's just finding what best suits you cause there are a ton of different schedules.

Well I hope everyone is doing great. I am still plugging away down in Tennessee. I feel like October will be here before i know it. I will be in Cbus a few weekends before the race so if anyone wants to run with me let me know. I'll actually be doing my 5 miles somewhere in Cbus this weekend so if you see a busty blonde passed out on the side of the road or a jogging path don't worry it's just me!! Have a good week ladies!!

Kels

Marco!

Ladies, where is everyone? I had an off-week last week but am trying to get back on track this week. I'm slammed so I haven't had a chance to write to you about it, but being the ADD person I am, I keep checking for updates on your progress. I need you to keep me going!

Just wanted to let you know that I'm still trying to do this in case anyone else out there is feeling a little too busy themselves.