Welcome to week three of my half marathon training blog. Or as I am affectionately referring to it as "the big let down." My training this past week was to consist of three days of faster paced walking. Only three days. Yep, three days. Why the big let down? I only managed to make time for 1 day. Yep, one day. I thought about getting to the gym more often. Truly I did. So here are my excuses. Sunday was my off day. Monday I had a lunch date that took the whole afternoon. When I got home with cupcakes from Gigi's we decided to celebrate Valentine's day instead. Tuesday when I got home from work, Ana was sleeping on the couch until 7:00 PM. I didn't have the heart to wake her and make her go to the gym with me. Wednesday I worked a 12 hour shift and was just plain tired by the time I got home. Thursday I had no kids, and actually made it to Prairie Athletic Club which is where I noticed my flat tire. I kept thinking, if I go Friday and Saturday I can still salvage this week. So Friday I came home from work and did house work in preparation for the overnight I was begged into letting Ana have. Saturday more cleaning then a visit with my cousin and aunt in Baraboo. Home by 7:30. No more trips to the gym.
How easy it is to fall out of habit or let little things take over my agenda. I know if I am going to succeed I cannot let this happen. I am proud to say that I am already halfway through the planned week four workouts. I only have to fit two more workouts in this week and it is only Monday. I went Sunday evening alone because Ana didn't want to go. She was happy playing with her ipod. I only went for 40 minutes but when I found myself alone, I cranked up the gears and started running. I only did it a few times for about a minute at a time. I didn't want to hurt myself. The training program I have been following goes from fast walking to running 5 minutes at a time. I haven't run in forever so I don't think I can run for a full five minutes. This is where I am shortening the intervals. Sixty seconds of running with 2-3 minutes of walking. So far the running feels good. Better than the fast walking ever felt.
I have also suffered my first "injuries." I have developed painful calluses on the plantar surface of my feet near the balls. I had to google the usual prevention, symptoms and causes to really stop myself from worrying about destroying my feet forever. The new shoes helped a bit. I thought changing to a thinner sock without the terry on the inside would help too, but it didn't really make much difference. I used a pumice stone to try to get rid of some of the thickness developing. I bought some gel insoles for the balls of my feet but that seemed to make it worse. Then I bought foot powder. Gold Bond medicated foot powder. It would seem my whole problem was friction. The foot powder seems to be helping. Here all this time I thought sweat was a good thing.
Here's the part where I put in a plug for the Prairie Athletic Club. I have belonged to a few gym's in my time and PAC is the one I always seem to come back to. It is also the most family friendly gym I have ever been to. I like the fact that it is not one enormous room like another popular Madison gym. The additions made to PAC have made it where you can find your own little niche or join the masses. I prefer the treadmills under the mezzanine and across from the three basketball courts. The space feels a little more personal with about half a dozen treadmills in a row. I like the ellipticals on the mezzanine with the StairMasters and rowing machines over looking the courts. You can amuse yourself while working out with the Antics of the Thursday night volleyball leagues. The track encompasses the courts as well but I prefer to run laps on the soccer field. It doesn't feel as enclosed and I don't fear bumping the chain link fencing with all my natural grace. They have numerous pools, family and adult only locker rooms, massage and tanning services. The restaurant, The Lost Court, has great salads and adult smoothies. They also have group fitness classes and an outdoor water park. They are open early enough and late enough to meet most peoples needs. Check out their website www.prairieathletic.com because I know my descriptions are not doing them justice.
Stay tuned for week four. It is sure to be more of a success for me than week three. I will also discuss some of my favorite nutrition sites.
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