Plans... dreams.... TRAIN

Not much new has been going on as far as my training goes. I’ve been back in the groove of things for the last two weeks, that I’m happy about.

Right now my training goal is the USMC ½ Marathon in Jax. So, my simplistic plan is to do my long runs on the weekend. Increasing my mileage by 1 mile per week, then dropping back down every 3rd week for a rest. I’m working on a tempo in the middle of the long run at my “1/2 pace”. The long run we are doing also consists of a few monster hills on the way out, and the monster hills on the way back again. So, I think that’ll have me ready for anything. By the time Labor Day gets here the hill going up past the interstate won’t be anything!

My running during the week has consited of treadmill (It's HOT outside) and trail runs on Sunday if our schedule permits.

This week I plan on doing 10 miles on Sat. morning. I’ll try to get a tempo in at a 9:15min/mi for at least 3 miles. We’ll see how that goes. We will probably have to get up at 5:30AM to get out there early enough before it gets too hot. Our 9 mile run last week ended at about 9:15AM and we were MELTING!

I’m going to the pool to swim for the first time “for real” today. I say “for real” because I have been swimming in my apartment’s pool for the last few weeks. I have never been taught to swim… I took a swimming class at MSC back in 2000 and I don’t think I fully got the hang of it back then! So, my form started out HORRIBLE and I felt like I was going to die while swimming… I couldn’t understand how I can run for 2 hours, but not even swim for an entire minute!!!!! But, I’ve looked online and gotten some tips on technique and tried to apply them the best I can without a “coach”. I can already feel some improvement with not getting tired as quickly. Oh, and yest I must admit that a good pair of googles makes all the difference in the world!

Back to my swim plans for today…. We are going to a REAL 25 meter lap pool today and I can’t wait. I even had a dream about it last night. My mom had on a clear swim cap and I was all mad because I didn’t have a swim cap. How dare she show up more prepared than I was… Hahaha… I’m nervous about the swimming because I still don’t think I totally know what I’m doing. But, there is only one way to figure it out right?

My ultimate goal is to do a tri next spring. I am taking baby steps. The running section will be the easy part hands down. As for biking… I’ve been riding my mountain bike on the trails, which has got to be building “biking” muscles…. But I know it’ll be different on the road. We are probably going to get road bikes at Christmas time… I hope. Then swimming. Well, I guess my goal is to start off slow now. See if I even think I can really do it. Then at least try to swim once a week to keep up a base of training. Maybe up the training more when I get into a serious 16 week out training for the tri. Also, there’s the “open water” thing that I’ll have to learn how to do once I really figure out how to swim. Oh My! But I really really want to do this.

I want to actually BE the BEAST I dream of being!!!!