Goals and stuff!

So, I have been registered for the Big Sur Half Marathon partially against my will. Well, there was coercion involved, but I'm glad. The price I pay is that I must train with my other friends under the tutelage of the completely insane Thomas S.

Last week, two of us went to the track to do our assigned workout from Thomas (One he invented whole cloth. It bears no resemblance to other training programs I've seen. Oh well.) So, we did a mile at the track, ran 3 sets of stairs, and ran another mile. Not too bad. Other people can run more than I can, so I believe the goal was to warm-up jog the first mile and bat-out-of-hell the last one. We mostly walked the first one and halved the second one. We walked on the straight parts and ran to nausea on the curves. The stairs weren't that bad at all. It's not a big area, and my knees didn't hurt. Though I disliked pushing so hard, I was glad to do it. And I'll do it again. Twice this week. Argh.

So, yes. Tomorrow is track and so is Thursday. It's good to do speed work, and I know it will help me. I also know that I'm sore right now, so I don't totally look forward to tomorrow. Pray for me.

Today, I finally signed up with http://www.mapmyrun.com and I'm so glad I did! It is so fantastically easy to use. And I know that I did 7.44 miles today and an approximation of my calories burned. I'm going to use it to keep track of my miles, especially for the good of my shoes. I need to be more on top of when they're running out.

I walked to the library with the old dog, which was barely a workout, but thanks to the new info, I know it was 1.77 miles. Then I went to the gym to do abs & obey Thomas & do an hour's run on the treadmill. This was slightly less wonderful. I had thought that I was all warmed up from the mosey with the dog, but I guess I wasn't. I started out running at 4.6 for 10 minutes on the treadmill thinking that life was sweet. I walked a bit and stretched a bit after that, but by 17 minutes I had to stop because my left calf was in a world of pain. Disappointed, I got of the machine and went to stretch and use the foam roller. After stretching for a while, there was actually a treadmill open, so I hopped back on to give it another try.

This was one of those incline-friendly treadmills with the serious ramp & the handles on top. I really like how smoothly they run and how easy it is to change speeds, etc. The main problem? That freaking emergency stop magnet. It's not a flat disc that takes a tug to come off, it's a freaking fishing bobber that you can practically blow on and it falls off & your workout stops. Argh. So, it was an already fragmented workout from the pain break, and then I knocked that stupid thing of TWO TIMES!!! Argh. So, today's numbers really are estimates. All things could be higher- more miles, but also a little more time. Running, listening, & adding don't always work at the same time. Next time will be better.

Then I walked the big dog with my friend and her tiny dog, and that was about 1.2 miles. On the treadmill, I think I was around 4.4 miles in an hour.

On the website, there was a section where I could put in a goal for myself, so I put in that I wanted to lose 10 lbs in 30 days. Then, at the gym, there was a board where we could put up our goals, so there I put 15lbs by Nov 15th- race day. I believe that I will do this- small goals, work scheduled. It will be good.