In Training

I am officially In-Training for this year's Honolulu Marathon. Training is going very well, which is a bit of a surprise after taking 3 years off and gaining 30 pounds. But so far I've dropped about 15 pounds (maybe 20 depending on which scale at Don Quixote's is accurate), am not afraid to look at my naked self in the mirror, and my endurance is picking up. On Sunday I ran for 1 hr. 40 min, then walked home for a total of 2 hrs. out. On Monday I ran on the beach with a friend, mixing a relatively short (about 1-1/2 miles) run in soft sand with sprints and various other exercises. Then yesterday I ran a fast (for me) 50 minutes. Couldn't make my 1-hour, but needed a faster paced long run even if for a shorter time. Today is a rest day. Trying to mix in some weight lifting workouts, rope jumping, and other things for variety. Oh, and Sunday nights I'm back in dance class (which I've also missed for 3 years). All that and back on a healthy diet too. Not one bit of junk food in over a month, smaller meals, no between meal snacks, and cut down on the beer. In fact, I haven't had a beer in a week now, but I don't want to get too carried away.

Now I've got to start looking at some races to start getting more prepared for the marathon (this will be my 4th, by the way). I'm going to sign up for the Marathon Readiness Series of races, as it's the perfect marathon prep. It sure made a huge difference in my performance the one year I did it. The series of 5 races starts in August and runs through early November, with the marathon in early December. Race distances are 15K (9.3 mi), 20K (12.4 mi), 25K (15.5 mi), 30K (18.6 mi), and Half-Marathon (13.1 mi). Marathon distance is 26.2 mi, if you don't know (and those last point-two miles are killer!).

So, wish me luck, and send donations for new (smaller) clothes, since my fat boy clothes are too loose on me now.