Questioning my Decision

After a much needed break for my muscles, I finally went for a run yesterday. I felt really good. I was thinking, "Okay, we are back and ready to go." Tonight I had my first official training session for the race. It was quite a humbling experience. I was really worried about it. I was just hoping that I could hang with everyone. I did fine with the running, however not so good with the rest. We did push ups - did ok. We did pull ups - I had to do the assisted machine pull ups. We did tricep work - no problem. We did hanging chin ups - huge problem!! I could hang for 15 seconds, but I could NOT pull myself up and hang. It was awful. I felt defeated. I have been lifting for a year now and I thought that I was much stronger than that. I am already sore. I can't imagine how sore I will be tomorrow and Thursday. I have a lot of work to do and much ibuprofen to take! I am now wondering if signing up for this race was a good idea.

Still Pain

I woke up today and I am still in pain. The pain goes from my butt down my leg, into my knee and down into my foot. I went to the gym and talked to the trainer. He said that my muscle is really tight. I am not allowed to run until it feels better. So today I lifted, rode the bike, stretched, and got on the roller. It is definitely tight! I left the gym and went to get new running shoes. I have had my current ones for about 2 years and I am wondering if this is part of the problem. I went to Flying Feet - they are great! They take so much time with you to make sure that you have the perfect shoe. I ended up with these - hopefully they will help!

Pain

I didn't get a chance to do any exercise today. I was up at 6 am to go to my daughter's swim meet. I was in charge of volunteers and the hospitality suite. I barely had time to sit down. I worked from 6 until 2. As the day went on, my hip began to hurt more and more. By tonight the pain has spread into my knee. I think I did something to my muscle during Yoga. I am not sure what, but it really hurts. I am taking some Ibuprofen and heading to bed. We have another swim meet tomorrow.  I am hoping that we are finished before dark and that I feel up to going for a run.

Sore

I got up this morning, which I thought was a plus! I was exhausted (could've have been from staying up until 1 am watching a show with Steven). I was very sore from Yoga. I knew that I HAD to go to the gym, even though it was the last thing I felt like doing. I got to the gym and usually once I am warmed up I begin to feel a little better. Not today! I did make it through my workout, but it was ugly. As the day goes on, I am beginning to feel better and not so sore. I think that a hot shower and some more stretching will help.

Yoga

Well I ran on Tuesday and felt pretty good. I was somewhat stiff and my knee hurt a little, but not too bad. Wednesday I lifted and did interval training on the treadmill. As the day wore on, I began to feel sore. I decided that I needed to do some stretching, so I got up today and went to a Yoga class. I felt really good after the class, but as the day went on I was really sore. I felt like I stretched and I am not stiff, but my hips are really sore. The kids and I went to Hershey and the more we walked the worse I felt. I was going to run tonight, but I am not sure I could have. I am going to rest and go lifting tomorrow. Time will tell.

Training for the Race

The unusual race that I will be doing is called an Urbanathlon. It is held in 3 different cities, New York, Chicago, and San Francisco. It is a 10 mile race through the city combined with 6 different obstacles. You can opt to do it alone or as a team. If you do it as a team, you run a 5K and do 2 obstacles. You can check it out at: http://www.menshealthurbanathlon.com/

I first heard about this at the gym where I work out.  I jumped on the Internet to check it out. I was immediately intrigued, however I thought there is no way I can do this. The next day a friend of mine posted something on facebook that she was thinking about doing it. I responded that I was thinking about it also and we decided to form a team. We still needed one more team member. We spoke to the gym owner and she found us someone that wanted to join us.

Once I committed, I began to get nervous. I am a very impulsive person and I tend to sign up for things before I really think about it. So I am now committed and realize I am in no way in shape for this type of race. I have been working out regularly for about a year and a half, but I am not in that good of shape.  Luckily, the gym has about 10 teams signed up, so they are having special training classes just for us. We begin our official training on July 31st. In the meantime, we have an assignment. We are to run every other day for 20 minutes. We start with a warmup, then run 1 min, walk 1.5, minutes, and continue for 20 min. Each day we are to increase the amount of running time. I started doing this on Thursday of last week and I have not been able to increase the time yet. The trainer told me that she would like us to all be on a relatively equal playing field. I am really beginning to worry that I won't be ready.

Introduction

I wanted to start my blog by telling a little about myself. I am your average middle aged woman. I am married to a great guy, have two children (Samantha & Steven), am a third grade teacher, daughter, sister, and friend. I am extremely busy - aren't we all? I work full time and chauffer the kids part time, although sometimes it feels like a full time job.

I am starting this blog for one main reason. I am a teacher and I want my students to learn to blog. I can't expect them to do something that I myself don't do. So, I am stepping out of my comfort zone and beginning a blog. 

When I thought about doing this I thought, "What in the world will I blog about?" I am so average that no one will want to read what I have to say. There is nothing terribly exciting about me. My family doesn't like me telling friends about them so I thought they would really hate it if I talked about them to the world. I finally decided that I would blog about how I am training for an unusual race. I will chronicle my ups and downs of training. I decided that I really don't care if anyone reads my blog or makes comments. I am doing this for me so I can be a better teacher.