Day 3: The First Official Run

Well, I had breakfast and packed a healthy lunch today so I was proud of that (and still haven't had a cigarette..yay!), but throughout the day the first run has been on my mind. It was 1/2 anxiousness and 1/2 nervousness. I couldn't wait to get back out there, but 4 miles...damn that's a rough distance to start up at.

So I got home, and dusted off some friends that I haven't seen for awhile:

Unfortunately my armband for the iPod shuffle and my Nike+ distance gear was nowhere to be found (I'll be scouring for it later) so I went off to the gym to get a true distance reading.

Well....I did 4 miles....at a decent pace too (finished in 33:08). Unfortunately I ended up walking 1/4 of a mile around the 2 3/4 mi. mark and I could feel a hint of tendentious creeping up on my right knee. I was jamming to the Aesop Rock Nike+ Mix of "No Surrender" at the time and once those lyrics kicked in they kept me going to the finish. Oh well, maybe a slower pace next time around will do it. This 8 miler coming up on Sunday might be alot rougher than expected. Ah well, I'll enjoy the rest day tomorrow and worry about it when the time comes.

Have a great weekend!

Day 2: First Workout and First Day Not Smoking

Well, I'm staying strong and have not yet had a cigarette today. It's been rough, but if every day feels like this (I know the cravings are going to get worse) I should be able to make it through no problem. I brought some of those Commit lozenges to work today just incase. I ended up eating 2, but left them on my desk so I'm gutting it out cold turkey tonight, probably the best way to do it.


As for the workout, today was cross training day (I've already missed the first few days of the program due to my late start) so I decided it would be fun to do playing card PT like back in my Army days. Well, it was something, but fun wouldn't be the word. I can't believe how weak I've become just from sitting around.

Here's a rundown of playing card PT for those of you who have never done it:

Equipment:

1 Deck of Playing Cards

Rules:

Shuffle the cards, lay them in a pile face down, and flip one over at a time. Do the corresponding exercise to the card you draw and repeat until the deck is finished or the time limit is reached.

Excercises according to cards (these can be changed to suit needs):

Spades = Regular Pushups
Clubs = Situps
Hearts = Lunges
Diamonds = Close Hand (Diamond) Pushups

The amount of repetitions is based on the number on the card.

In the event of face cards and Jokers being pulled:

Jack = 11 reps
Queen = 12 reps
King = 13 reps
Ace = 14 reps
Joker = 15 reps of the last exercise done

I decided to be a little hardcore and start off with my Perfect Pushups to go along with the cards. After pulling the Ace of Diamonds, the Ace of Spades, and then a Joker all in a row I quickly learned that I am nowhere near ready for the additional challenge the Perfect Pushups were providing. Maybe they'll come back out of the closet someday, but definitely not soon...I'm going to be hurting tomorrow.

All in all a good day, looking forward to that run tomorrow to get a feeling on where my cardio endurance is at. I also need to work on getting more (7-8 hrs) sleep and get a good meal plan in place. I'll keep you all posted and have a nice chart one I get that figured out.

Day 1: A New Beginning

So from my Google results this has been the first time this has been done, an 8 week intensive plan to get ready for a marathon. Right now I want to say that this may or may not happen, I have overcome much in the past and intend for it to happen now.

Alright, a quick overview of my background. I have run a few races from the Navy 5 miler to the Ragnar Relay, but never a full marathon (and it's been months since I've ran). I signed up for the Big Sur Marathon months ago, with full intent of training fully, but unfortunately that didn't work out. Now I have less than 8 weeks left and need to get this done.

The first major things that I need to drop are my two main vices:





Cigarettes: 1 pack a day











Alcohol: Not at a bad point. Still more than I should have daily though.








This starts tonight..following this the training plan will start tomorrow:

As no 8 week marathon training plan exists yet, this is the one I came up with: 8 Week Marathon Training Program

This may be modified in the near future to suit my schedule, changes will definitely be posted though.

It's time to start eating cleaner and getting down to business...let's get this going!!