My Training

I got to thinking that I haven't really giving you all an idea of what my training is like for this half marathon/triathlon craziness. 

I've been back in the gym, consistently since late September of 2009. My fitness and endurance is coming back with the cardio and weights, but at first I felt like a real slug. At of the first of this year, I decided to really focus my running on building mileage base for the half marathon. (A half marathon is 13.1 miles.) The half is June 26th, so I still have a bit of time. I'm definitely not built like an endurance athlete, hell, I'm not even built like an athlete (pin-up girl? Now we're talking!) Anyhoo, I have to really make sure to train my muscles to handle the endurance, without injury. Part of that is just plain running and part of it is factoring in rest and building muscle, too. So, from the first of January until March 1st, I'm running 4 days a week and stationary biking 2 days. I also have two workouts I'm doing in the gym. One is focused on power, with higher weights and lower reps and the other on endurance, lower weights and lots of reps (and lots of lactic acid.)


In the gym, I'm also focusing on more dynamic/functional training. Even though that seems to be a real buzzword right now in the fitness industry, I think done effectively, it can help even the chubby athletes. Most of my leg work is done unilaterally as well.  It basically involves more bodyweight work for stabilizer muscles and waking up some muscles that aren't really good at firing (hip flexors for me and most office jockeys.) 

So far, I haven't missed one workout. I'm enjoying the challenge and have races scheduled every month until June (sometimes 2) to keep me motivated for the half marathon. Some friends and I are even running a local 10k (6.2mi) on Super Bowl Sunday.