GLANCING BACK

This morning when I got up, I immediately flipped on the TV. Today is the Chicago Marathon. It's 7am and the temperature is already 70 degrees. I remember back to 2003 when I watched this and made my mind up to run it in 2004. I wanted to be part of the thousands of runners at the start and feel the excitement for myself. There was no doubt in my mind that I could be one of those out there.

I got up and headed out the door for a 4 mile run. One mile for every year since then. One mile to glance back to where I have come from.

Mile 1 (2003) After 15 years of not running, I began to run again. I was up to 3 miles. I completed my first 5 K race and was thrilled with 34:50. I made up my mind to run the Chicago Marathon in 2004. In 1988 while training for the Columbus marathon, I injured my knee on my last 20 mile run. It was important to me to finally take a shot at the marathon distance.

Mile 2 ( 2004) My sights for focused on the marathon. I began the season with a 10k in May. That day when I finished the race, I officially signed up for Chicago. I started increasing my mileage. I used Marathoning for Mortals by John Bingham as my guide. In August, I ran the Chicago Distance Classic Half Marathon. Then in October completed my first marathon. I was on top of the world.

Mile 3 (2005) I made the decision to sign up for Chicago again. I did my half earlier in May at Indy. My friend DeeDee also had signed up for Chicago. My training was right on track. This year I leaned toward Jeff Galloway training. In September , I ran a PR at the USAF half marathon. When October came, I lined up for my 2nd time in Chicago. Unfortunately at mile 22 my knee began hurting so bad that I walked the last 4.2 miles.

Mile 4 (2006) After recovering for my ITB injury in my right knee, I began spin class. There I met Mary who introduced me to the world of biking. I loved it and bought my first road bike. I decided no marathon this year. Because I can't swim, I decided to do some duathlons and half marathins this year. I really enjoyed doing the 2 sports.

Cooling off (2007) A quick glance at this year started with siging up for the Flying Pig Marathon. I had no desire to run Chicago again. After the marathon, my focus was truely the duathlon. I enjoyed every race that I did. A highlight also was going to Louisville and volunteering at Ironman. How inspiring. That's when my goals for 2008 began popping in my head. I needed to learn how to swim as soon as possible. Because I knew that 2008's big goal would be a half Ironman.

In all of this, I realized how lucky I am to be able to dream something and do it. I hope I can continue and always have the faith to go on.

Waddling to the future..............

FIRST S & S

I did my first swim brick this morning. With the weather being hot and humid early, I decided to head for the gym.

SWIM- I spent 30 min in the pool. I focused on the drills that I learned in class. I'm not going to worry too much about distance until Jan. 1. I need to concentrate on the learning to swim and good form. I felt like I did get better but I have to admit I was wearing my nose plugs.

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Spin - After the pool, I changed and headed for a 60 min. spin class. There was different instructor that I had not experienced before. I also forgot my HR monitor. I talked myself into at least doing 30 minutes. She made up the workout as she went and it did not go with the song that was playing. at 30 minutes I had just made it my own workout. I did complete the 60 minutes.

Just a note - tomorrow on TV Versus has on IM Coeur d'Alene. I am anxious to see the course as I know several friends that are planning to do it.

Waddling to clean and do laundry(woohoo).........

Alot of excitement in Chicagoland this week with the 30th running of the Chicago. I want to shout out to my friend DeeDee who will be running this for her 3rd year. She has really put her heart and soul into her training and I wish her the best. Also a good luck to Juls who is coming in from California. She has had a very tough year and deserves an awesome day. The weather will be untypical for Chicago -forecast is for 85 and sunny.

SWIM LESSON #5


Tuesday night's swim class was not as good. I tried tonight to go without nose clips. I can't get the breathing down yet. I get so caught up in worrying about the breath that my form stinks. I might concentrate on my form now and work on the breathing later. Next week is the last week for Ripples. I hope I can still graduate.



TEAM WEIGHT LOSS # 1B
Tonight we were supposed to meet with the nutritionist. On week 1,6, and 12- the team weighs in and gets measurements done. The nutritionist was off sick so they added on a free week for us and there will acutallu be 13 weeks to the program. We were on the treadmill again for 60 min. Today was incline intervals between 2 -4-6 . We added 5 lb weights to work our arms also at different time. I was drenched with sweat when I was done. I thought about swimming but my legs were just too tired. When I left the gym, I felt like I am really heading the right direction.

Good Luck -DeeDee and Juls!!!!!!!!!

Waddling to lose weight..........

TEAM WEIGHT LOSS

The first piece of my training program is to lose weight. Tonight I joined a program at my gym for TEAM WEIGHT LOSS. It's like being on a team on the Biggest Loser except our team trainer is Pat. Pat came to us from the University of Cincinnati-he was their fitness trainer.

There are 10 on our team. It covers 3 months. Tonight was a treadmill workout. It was intervals that were heart rate based. We have 3 workouts per week with the trainer. We added incline, hand weights and stretch bands at different times.
I will finish this and be lighter and hopefully more ready to begin hard training January 1.

So now I have a swim coach and a trainer.

Waddling into base training.....................