Week 8

Almost half way there! I can't believe it. This whole experience has been eye-opening and I'm really proud that I've stuck with it for so long.

Obviously I ran this week, so I won't bore you with those details. But I realized this past week how "in shape" I am! I first noticed this when I went out for my Monday run. Mark decided to accompany Andrew and I since this run was only going to be about 4 miles (ha, I LOVE that I can refer to 4 miles as "only"). As we were running I could hear Mark breathing kind of heavily about half way through... yet I was barely feeling any kind of stress. It was kind of funny. He made a crack about my "in-shape ass" and I thought to myself, "you know, he's right. I am in pretty damn good shape right now!". In his defense, Mark hasn't been running with us on a regular basis and it had been about 4 good weeks since he's been out, but he did finish the run :o) This new found fitness has really made me feel good about myself and to be honest, sometimes I feel a bit superior when I see people out trying to outrun me (I get this a lot surprisingly, mostly from men). I just say to myself "yeah, you're running pretty fast now, but you won't be able to keep that up for long and I WILL outrun you". Then about a mile down the road I see them bending over gasping for air... told ya so!

I'm really starting to get excited about the race in September... I'm convinced I can actually finish it without having to stop and rest which is soooo far from what I thought when I first began all of this. Looking forward to hitting the half way mark (I told myself if I made it to week 10 I would treat myself with day at the spa) and continuing on to my goal!

PS... as of now I've only lost about 2lbs! Yes, that's it, but my thighs are getting to be rock hard, so I guess I'm building muscle mass in my legs. Just a word of advice to people... if weight loss is your ONLY goal, you're not going to make it very far. I haven't let the lack in weight loss get to me as I now see I am more physically fit than I've been in years! That's good enough for me :o)

Week's 6 and 7

It's been kind of busy, so I missed last week's update (on vacation for the holiday, so I had to get back into the swing of things!).

The past two weeks went well. My new running schedule seems to be helping my shins a lot and I haven't had any leg pain for awhile now. I'm currently running Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays so that I have rest time in between runs. Before, I would do a back to back run on Wednesday and Thursday, but I think my shins really need a rest day to recover properly. As of now, I'm running 7.2miles which I think is crazy! I remember when the idea of doing a 3 mile run would make my stomach churn with dread, but now I don't fear the distance quite so much. I'll be honest, the thought of running 13.1 miles still seems daunting to me, but I'm halfway there and stillhave 3 months of training to complete. I'd say I'm well on my way!

I've been keeping a training log on RunnersWorld.com (which I highly suggest. It is a great site) and as of yesterday, I've run 85.1 miles since I started!

This week, we're planning to crest the 8 mile mark... should be interesting.