Working Out

Yesterday afternoon I went down to the gym with my ‘coach’. We set a plan for the next month. I am excited that he thinks I can still make my goal for my half marathon, which is just a couple months away. [Right now I am shooting for a 2.5 hour finish – but technically just being able to finish is a HUGE goal I think, especially with this recent IT band dilemma]

We scheduled my elliptical workouts – three times a week. One day of long intervals, one day of short intervals, and one day of just straight running. [In the past I have just been doing the straight running part – getting on the elliptical putting it on a steady level and then read my book for 45-60 minutes]  I am interested to see how the intervals will be. (I also have to figure out if my watch can do custom times like that, or I will be doing a lot of watching on the elliptical screen J).

We scheduled some weight/ muscle workouts – two times a week. Now I know this may sound super basic and lame, but I do NOT work out in the gym. I mean I will run on the elliptical or ride the exercise bike, but I am not in there lifting weights, do squats, etc. I think the last time I was doing things like that was back in college (which probably didn’t last long if I remember correctly, hehe). Since I am not doing the workouts to get huge and muscle-y, but more to work on my balance, strengthening the muscles I use when running, etc, I am doing a lot of everything on both days – abs, legs, back, arms. Yesterday we went over the exercises (but not the full set, just so that I could get an idea of what I needed to do, etc). I have to say, even with only doing it a little bit, I can already feel it in some of my muscles (mostly my triceps and upper body – since I have little to NO strength up there).

We also scheduled bike rides – once a week. I am hoping that Ryan and I can do this on Saturdays. I guess I didn’t even think of it, but Matthew’s thought is that I need to train my body to be going (even if it is using different muscles and doing a different type of exercise) for the length of time I will be running. That way, when I get back in running (and especially my longer runs), my body is already used to working for the longer times. So he said to start off around 1.5 hours and work our way up about 15 or so minutes a week, until we get up to about 2.5 or so hours.

Now that I’ve got my next 3 or 4 weeks planned out, here’s to hoping I can stick with it. I mean, I am sure when I put my mind to it I will be able to do it, I just don’t want to get discouraged if it is harder than I am expecting J.