Let's Try This Again
I seem to try this every year, so I'm going to give it another go. You heard it here first, boys and girls!
Yup, I'm going to give it another shot! One of these times my body will cooperate and you will see me at the finish line of another half marathon.
I blame all of my friends who ran the Grandma's marathon and Gary Bjorklund Half Marathon this past weekend. I get so pumped watching their updates and their race day posts on Facebook. By Sunday I looked at The Hubby and said, "We're going to train for the year's Whistlestop Half Marathon and I don't want to hear any excuses!" Thankfully he loves me and he's used to my crazy, so he just answered with, "Ok." Oh how I love that man's ability to put up with me!
Sunday was my first official training run. Funny enough, it went awesome. I had zero pain! No side pain, no back pain, no hip pain, no knee pain and I didn't even get the usual post-run headache. I was barely even sore the next day. Of course, my "marathon" of martial arts activities a few days before were probably to thank for that.
Quick story... I went to karate on Thursday night to relieve The Hubby of his duties so he could hustle Jack Jack over to his game 30 minutes away. All three girls stayed with me since the big girls were in class and Abbycakes had class at 6pm. Between classes I loaded them all up into the vehicle and made a mad dash for a super speedy dinner before cruising back to the dojo to get the youngest girl into her gi and out on the mat for class. Might I add that we made it with time to spare. Rock on, Mom!
So, once she was in class, I donned my gi and headed to the little room to work on my new material for class credit since my job as a shuttle bus driver leaves very little time to get all of my classes in this summer. The two older girls even came into the room with me to work on their new material. Emmy Lou was finishing up her week of karate camp, and was utterly exhausted, but they always do well working together and even helped me out a bit.
As class was wrapping up, I texted The Hubby asking him to pick up the girls on his way back through. I had an hour between Abbycakes's class and my class and I knew if I went home, there was about a 1% chance that I would return for my much needed class. My best bet was to stay at the dojo. Lucky me, I noticed that the muay thai class was starting, so I made sure the girls all had their stuff together and hit the mat for a little muay thai. It had been about nine months since my last class. Oh My... OWWWWWW!!! By the end of class I was dripping sweat like I had been sprayed with a garden hose, I could hardly get my gi pants back on over my sweaty legs (I had done muay thai in my workout pants and tank), and every punch made my arms scream, "Stop it, you lunatic! We are so done! Let us rest!!!" You don't even want to know what my quads were screaming, since apparently it was super squat day in mauy thai class. WHEW!
Needless to say, when we wrapped up karate class at 9pm, I was moving rather slowly and going down the steps to my bedroom once I was home was quite daunting. It felt amazing to make it through three hours of martial arts classes, including a high intensity cardio hour, and have zero bad pain. Sure, I was sore and my muscles were exhausted, but I didn't have any side pain and I didn't have any pain in my collarbone. I'm not sure I've ever been so excited to experience the pain I did feel. It was a total "I worked hard and pushed it, so my body is sore and tired because I never use these muscles" kind of sore. Plus, I recovered in less than two days. WOOHOO!
Those of you who've been following me know me well enough by now... One success means it's time to try everything! Nah! I'm actually being really good about introducing activities slowly, paying close attention to my body and sort of babying my previously injured areas. I'm hoping that by building up the muscles, training my core and gaining overall strength, that I will be less likely to relapse in the injury area. One can only hope, I guess.
With that... this week is all about three evening activities: Softball, Martial Arts and Running. I'm using karate and muay thai as my cross training for my training schedule. I'll run three nights a week, with my long run on the weekends. I'll do karate or muay thai 2-3 times a week (some days I'll double up). I'm also hoping to slowly add in weights some days to push that strength and conditioning theory.
Overall, my number one focus is listening to my body. I want this! I want to prove to myself that I can still do this. I may not do it fast, but I want to finish! If... WHEN I complete the Whistlestop Half Marathon, I will only have one more race on my list of must-do's. If I can complete a half in October, then I will register for Grandma's half next year. I want to do it once and my goal is to finish one before I turn 40. I've got this!!!
Yup, I'm going to give it another shot! One of these times my body will cooperate and you will see me at the finish line of another half marathon.
I blame all of my friends who ran the Grandma's marathon and Gary Bjorklund Half Marathon this past weekend. I get so pumped watching their updates and their race day posts on Facebook. By Sunday I looked at The Hubby and said, "We're going to train for the year's Whistlestop Half Marathon and I don't want to hear any excuses!" Thankfully he loves me and he's used to my crazy, so he just answered with, "Ok." Oh how I love that man's ability to put up with me!
Sunday was my first official training run. Funny enough, it went awesome. I had zero pain! No side pain, no back pain, no hip pain, no knee pain and I didn't even get the usual post-run headache. I was barely even sore the next day. Of course, my "marathon" of martial arts activities a few days before were probably to thank for that.
Quick story... I went to karate on Thursday night to relieve The Hubby of his duties so he could hustle Jack Jack over to his game 30 minutes away. All three girls stayed with me since the big girls were in class and Abbycakes had class at 6pm. Between classes I loaded them all up into the vehicle and made a mad dash for a super speedy dinner before cruising back to the dojo to get the youngest girl into her gi and out on the mat for class. Might I add that we made it with time to spare. Rock on, Mom!
So, once she was in class, I donned my gi and headed to the little room to work on my new material for class credit since my job as a shuttle bus driver leaves very little time to get all of my classes in this summer. The two older girls even came into the room with me to work on their new material. Emmy Lou was finishing up her week of karate camp, and was utterly exhausted, but they always do well working together and even helped me out a bit.
As class was wrapping up, I texted The Hubby asking him to pick up the girls on his way back through. I had an hour between Abbycakes's class and my class and I knew if I went home, there was about a 1% chance that I would return for my much needed class. My best bet was to stay at the dojo. Lucky me, I noticed that the muay thai class was starting, so I made sure the girls all had their stuff together and hit the mat for a little muay thai. It had been about nine months since my last class. Oh My... OWWWWWW!!! By the end of class I was dripping sweat like I had been sprayed with a garden hose, I could hardly get my gi pants back on over my sweaty legs (I had done muay thai in my workout pants and tank), and every punch made my arms scream, "Stop it, you lunatic! We are so done! Let us rest!!!" You don't even want to know what my quads were screaming, since apparently it was super squat day in mauy thai class. WHEW!
Needless to say, when we wrapped up karate class at 9pm, I was moving rather slowly and going down the steps to my bedroom once I was home was quite daunting. It felt amazing to make it through three hours of martial arts classes, including a high intensity cardio hour, and have zero bad pain. Sure, I was sore and my muscles were exhausted, but I didn't have any side pain and I didn't have any pain in my collarbone. I'm not sure I've ever been so excited to experience the pain I did feel. It was a total "I worked hard and pushed it, so my body is sore and tired because I never use these muscles" kind of sore. Plus, I recovered in less than two days. WOOHOO!
Those of you who've been following me know me well enough by now... One success means it's time to try everything! Nah! I'm actually being really good about introducing activities slowly, paying close attention to my body and sort of babying my previously injured areas. I'm hoping that by building up the muscles, training my core and gaining overall strength, that I will be less likely to relapse in the injury area. One can only hope, I guess.
With that... this week is all about three evening activities: Softball, Martial Arts and Running. I'm using karate and muay thai as my cross training for my training schedule. I'll run three nights a week, with my long run on the weekends. I'll do karate or muay thai 2-3 times a week (some days I'll double up). I'm also hoping to slowly add in weights some days to push that strength and conditioning theory.
Overall, my number one focus is listening to my body. I want this! I want to prove to myself that I can still do this. I may not do it fast, but I want to finish! If... WHEN I complete the Whistlestop Half Marathon, I will only have one more race on my list of must-do's. If I can complete a half in October, then I will register for Grandma's half next year. I want to do it once and my goal is to finish one before I turn 40. I've got this!!!
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