Boston Marathon Training HAS BEGUN!

I have been a slacker a bit these past couple weeks on blogging and reading blogs.  I am sorry about that.  Part of it has been that I have been Ryan's assistant scrapbooker, as we crammed to get our entire year boiled down to 10 scrapbook pages.  If it wasn't for the fact that we had 2 computers with pictures randomly on each other, as well as 2 cameras, then I am sure Ryan would not have even bothered to have me help, because I am horrible at canning pictures.  I want to include everything (hence my personal blog entries being out of control).  Ryan is great at being concise, but he just had no clue where any of the pictures were, so I had to make attempts at getting them grouped for him by page.  I seriously spent one night searching through the Muncie lost and found photos (all 5500 of them), trying to find a picture of me finishing with the IM banner over my head.  Sadly, I did not find one.  I did, however, find two really awesome ones of me running into the finish line where you can read IRONMAN in the background, and several others.  I ended up ordering two so that I can use them for the scrapbook.  I have the proofs in there now, but will replace them once they finally arrive.

I also spent nights working on compiling our Christmas card list and getting those in order.  I will not be posting a picture of our card.  Ryan feels that it makes it less special for those who recieve it if it is out there on the internet for everyone.  However, I think this might be the last year we mail them and will just do a f/b card or e-card, since it looks like the post office as we know it may go under soon.  We still have about 10 more cards to do.  I participated in the (Just) Trying is for Little Girls Card exchange, and would like to give a shout out to my group, Team Dasher!  Check out these ladies.  I look forward to learning more about them.

Kim @ (Just) Trying is for Little Girls

www.23imaginaryfriends.blogspot.com

Darlene @lMy First 5K and More

 http://myfirst5k.wordpress.com

Jen @ Running With The Girls www.Runningwiththegirls.com
Fav race distance so far has been the 1/2 marathon.   

Heather @: 365awesomedays.blogspot.com

Jolene @ Journey of a Canuck Mom on the Run, 

http://journeyofacanuckmomontherun.blogspot.com

Thanks Kim for putting this together!

Also, one of the real reasons I have been slacking on the blog front is that I have NOT been slacking on the training front.  With the holidays fast approaching, I have been a lot busier during the week, doing shopping, food prep, ect, and I am using Hal Higdon's intermediate/advanced marathon training plan, which meant I needed to have a decent base built up before starting it.  We also went out of town over the weekend, which meant that I had to fit in all my training M-F, with nothing on Saturday.  It meant 9 miles on the treadmill, but I had to get it done to be ready to do my first official long run of my training plan this Saturday.  10 miles.  This was in Chicago at the Christkindlmarket.  I ate so much food!  Yum.  Now I need to get back on track.

Yesterday was the official start, and it was cross training.  I did meet with Mr New Trainer, and I think he had been briefed.  I say this mostly because he did not do any sort of fitness evaluation or sales pitch.  He also didn't really ask my background, probably because he was standing there on Friday when the head of personal training introduced me to a client as "the only person crazy enough to ask for more" after one of his sessions.  The workout was challenging.  I am sore today for sure.  He focused more on areas of my strengths, so I am not terribly sore, and only at a couple points during the workout did I really struggle, but I did feel it.  Wall sits while doing punches with weights kicked the trash out of me.  Also, doing ab exercises for 1min solid, each exercise rather than 30 secs (which I normally do) was an adjustment, but I am not nearly as sore as I was after Deluca's workout.  I did wear my Muncie shirt and a skirt, per everyone's suggestions.

Today, I did a hill workout indoors.  It was a dumb idea, and I didn't realize how dumb it was until I finished my first 400m hill, and the treadmill only went down to flat, not downhill.  RIP OFF!  I totally forgot about that aspect of hills until I was mid workout.  Blech.  I think for hills from now on, I will run the road to our sub, which is about perfectly lengthed, with 400 steep uphill, and then a downhill.  I was supposed to do 3 sets, and I did them, but I hated it.  I was proud of myself because I did not touch the speed at all.  I was able to maintain the same speed going uphill as I did on the recovery pace, and that was super hard.  Maybe too hard?   I have never done an indoor hill workout before, so I guess I wasn't sure what to do.  Any thoughs?  I think I will save the tempos and speed sessions for the treadmill, but do hills on real hills, even if it means I have to take Soren. It was actually pretty warm this morning too, which made it seem extra stupid.  I will probably have to take him for my Thursday run, since Keira has a school party during gym playroom hours.  I am going to have to get creative to get everything done until Jan 2.  At least the distances are pretty short for now, so they won't be as time consuming to do or dangerous to the grand scheme of things if I have to skip one or two.  My swims will be the first to go, and I need to get back into biking come Jan.

Also, my race schedule is all jacked up for 2012.  I know I want to do at least 1 70.3 and 2 half marathons, one in the spring and one in the fall.  I can't seem to figure out what to do.  I was thinking of Rev3 Knoxville, until I realized it was the day after the Kentucky Derby.  This poses 2 problems.  1, we wanted to go to the Derby this year.  2, it is pretty darn close to Boston, and I doubt I will have my biking ready since I will be easing up on the biking (provided I actually get it under control during Boston training) pretty much the whole first half of April, and then need to recover from the race too.  I do want to do a fast half shortly after Boston, and had considered the Capital City half, which is also that same weekend.  The Derby Mini Marathon is the week prior, and just too close to Boston to do what I want to do.  I can't do Racing for Recovery Half this year either.  Keira has her ballet recital the day before, so that doesn't work either.  Does anyone have any suggestions?  I want to race the weekend of Muncie for sure.  It is Saturday, July 7th. I just need to decide if I want to do Muncie, or stay here and do this local half.  Doing the local half is about the cheapest half I have ever seen, and Cristina may come down to do it as practice for IMLOU, since the course is similar.  I am not looking forward to swimming in the Ohio River, but with all the expense of Boston, doing a cheap race locally sounds like it might be a good idea.  I have already done the M-dot brand.  I had sort of wanted to try out the Rev 3, though.  I must say I was bummed to learn that the prices were the same as an M-dot.  Heather just got sponsored by Rev 3, so I am hoping she can tell me why to pick one over the other, when cost is the same.  Cedar Point would be the only other option, and the bad thing about that is that there is a race in MI that is very popular with my friends the day before.  Cristina has never lost it, and has free entry for life, so I know she won't do Cedar Point with me.  It is also a Sunday race, and I would really prefer a Saturday race.  Does anyone have some options?  I am not terribly worried about my plan for next year, though.  I need Ryan to hash out his, and then I will squeeze stuff in.  After such a huge year I had this year, I feel like I don't want to spend so much money on entry fees and travel.  I want to pick out a few nice races and really work on them.  I thought I did that this past year, but the move really threw a wrench into a lot of the plans, as well as being sick.

Sorry for the huge post, but I worried if I broke it into a couple over a few days, that it just wouldn't get done.  Keira is off school next week, and I will be entertaining my parents, so it will be crazy before Christmas.  There will also be an 11 miler in the gym on the treadmill on Dec 23, so I don't have to do it on the 24th.   And we haven't even started wrapping presents yet.  That will make for some more late nights!