Marathon training begins!

Training begins this week!  I have taken a 16-week training schedule and added four weeks on to the front.  Basically because I know that A) I'll get thrown off at least twice in the process because of illness/travel/etc and B) I'm not a fan of track work and I need the four weeks of prep time to get in gear for it.  Plus, I'm leaving for Active Duty with my Air Force National Guard Band on Wednesday, and the next two weeks may just be ridiculous.  Here's what I have on schedule for this week:

Monday--Cardio Strength class
Tuesday--Track workout   4x400's w/200 rest intervals.  1mi warmup and cooldown.  Then upper body destruction!
Wednesday--5mi, 3 at 8:40 pace.  This was supposed to be Thursday, but Friday is our PT test.  We'll see how well I hold up for this after the track workout.
Thursday--Rest
Friday--PT test.  This will include sit ups, push ups, and a 1.5 mile run.  I'm hoping to max out on each, but we'll see.  I'm a distance runner, not a speed runner!
Saturday--If I can get into the base gym, I'd like to do upper body again.
Sunday--10mi @9:15

So yeah, we'll see how much of that actually happens.  I found a Y with a decent track, though it's a bit of a drive.  We'll try it out in the morning before the heat sets in, but the earliest I can start is 8am.  Which will already be brutal.  Good times.

On a completely random and cute side note, we had an awesome little (gigantic) birthday party for my newly 6-year-old this past Saturday!  We got a huge bouncy water slide and put it in our front yard.  We ate burgers, smoked turkey, and pasta salad.  Then we tie dyed shirts and ate a delicious ice cream cake.  Aside from the cake (and the large amount of beer I drank after), it was a pretty healthy deal.  And we all had such a blast!  Once the kids all left, hubby and I hopped on the water slide with the kids.  Naturally.

Ridiculously huge slide

Singing with good friends

I hope you all had a happy weekend, and I'd love to hear what your training plans are for the week!

My body and my goals

I have been wanting to write this post for a while now.  I kept putting it off, but now that we've been given a challenge at work to identify and track one fitness goal, I've decided to pair the two together.

I am not completely satisfied with my body.  Don't get me wrong, I'm very happy with a lot of aspects and I feel stronger than I've ever felt before.  I love many aspects of my body, and I am extremely happy with the results of all of my hard work.  But there is more work to be done, and what I want to do is take myself to the next level.

I've lost all of my "baby weight".  I'm actually trimmer than I was before getting pregnant, and I weigh the same as I did in the beginning of college.  Not something easily done, let me tell you!  I've literally worked my ass off.  When I look in the mirror, I see a tiny, lean little person without much muscle mass.  I've begun doing a few strictly strength workouts, and it has helped already in that I can see more definition in my arms and legs.  But I want more!  I don't want to just be the skinny trainer, I want to be the STRONG trainer.  So, here is my starting point right now:

It's hard to see from this selfie (I tried to get my oldest to take a photo, but she's a bit too bouncy for it, hehe), but I have a lot of very loose skin around my belly.  I grew out a lot in both pregnancies, and it left me with not only the "mommy pouch", but also a deep abdominal connective tissue separation.  Basically, my "guts" are unprotected.  I also have an umbilical hernia because of it.  So far, the only difficulties it has caused me is the occasional bellybutton pain and a lack of being able to use upper and lower abdominal muscles together well.  I can do it, but it's not as simple as it used to be!  What else it has given me is a very large complex about showing my stomach to anyone.  I can count the people on one hand who have seen my stomach since my pre-baby bikini days. 

Now, I know that I cannot fix this without surgery, but there are other things that I CAN do and WILL do for my body in the coming months.  As I said before, I've been accepted into the NYC Marathon and my training will begin soon.  So here are my two major goals for the next few months:

1.  Complete the NYC Marathon in under 4 hours (but not-so-secretly I'll be happy with 4:15)

2.  Lose no weight and actually GAIN muscle mass in the process.

The two don't sound like they go hand in hand, but they can if you go about it the proper way.  And I will make it happen!  Here's how I plan to do this:

--Incorporate a "run less, run faster" approach, with only three days of running and two other cardio workouts per week.  My other cardio will be a "cardio strength" combo, either a class or HIIT.

--Strength train hard 3-4x/week--2-3x upper body, 1x lower body, abs every time.  No cardio involved in these workouts, strictly weight training of 3 sets, 8-10 reps.  When 10 reps gets easy, I move up in weight.  Towards the end, I hope to be doing a much higher weight with 3 sets of 6-8 reps.  This will push my muscle mass up, and the leg work should increase my power (ie speed) also. 

--Eat, eat, eat!  Marathon training makes people eat like maniacs anyway, but I really want to make sure that I'm not burning calories that I don't have to spend.  I plan on greatly increasing my lean proteins, doing an extra protein shake a day, cutting back on the "bad" carbs that slow me down, and allowing myself one cheat day/week.  That cheat day will be for my sanity, basically. :P

--Document it all here as much as possible.  I need a way to stay accountable, because these are some lofty goals.  But I know that I can do it if I put my mind to it!  I'm tired of being "skinny", I want to be strong.  I want to be powerful. 


So that's where I am.  Even as a trainer, I am always and will always be striving towards something.  Life is more fun if we dream bigger, right!?  What are your goals right now, and how do you plan on reaching them?