Posts
Oh.
My.
Word.
What have I gotten myself into again? I've reflected several times this year on having done the dash last year, and whether I would have actually gone through with it if I had known what I know now about it. Truthfully, I was as unprepared as a person could be (even though I thought I was) and yet somehow with no partner, pushed through and finished. From what I can gather, it was only by the grace of God. And my sheer stubbornness.
Rich, Sarah, and I have started walking Old Indian Road, as it's pretty much a mountain doppelganger to Windham, just shorter. Starting in mid May we walked the hill once up and once down (it's 3/4 of a mile each way) after church. After almost passing out with the extreme heat we'd had, we've now switched our time to early Saturday mornings. Throughout June we have been walking full up, halfway down, back up to the top again, and then full down, which is the equivalent of 3/4 of the dash. Thing is, we're doing it with wrist and ankle weights on, so that when we actually get ready to do the dash it will be easier on our bodies. Talk about ultimate strengthening. Or just being plain nuts. Either way....
We're able to do do the up, half, half, down, in 40 minutes, which isn't terribly bad with weights on. What I'm hoping is to be able to knock a few minutes off my time from last year. Again, though, having had surgery in Jan, as long as I finish I'll be a happy happy girl. I'll see if I can do a vid this Saturday and post it so you get an idea of how steep the hill that we're training on is. It has this one point where we kind of have to hike it or we'd roll.
The awesome thing is, I've resumed chocolate milk after exercise mandate, so we all get to thoroughly enjoy Stewart's chocolate milk upon completion.
What we're going to do is round out June with the full, half, half, full. We'll do July with two full ups (we'll do a car exchange thingie to make it as realistic as possible) followed by two full downs. And for the first week in August, we'll take off the weights and see just how fast we can do the whole thing start to finish, knowing that we'll be running on on August 13. Well, Rich and I will be running it. Sarah is just doing the training for fun, but says that next year she'll run it with us. Next year, though, I'm threatening both the dash AND tough mudder as long as I don't need yet another surgery....
So. I'm going to start running the smaller hills around my house again. I've clocked it, and I'm coming in at 30 seconds faster than last year on my mile, at 9:30, so I'm a bit encouraged about that. And though I plan to hike up Windham this year and not kill myself attempting to run, I know I can run any little flats and the full downhill to make up time, and that excites me.
Have heard I haven't updated this enough lately, so I'll try to start posting weekly with run updates, training tips, etc. OH, and I went to my first ostomy support group meeting. I'll blog that separately next, but how very interesting.
Love ya!
B
My.
Word.
What have I gotten myself into again? I've reflected several times this year on having done the dash last year, and whether I would have actually gone through with it if I had known what I know now about it. Truthfully, I was as unprepared as a person could be (even though I thought I was) and yet somehow with no partner, pushed through and finished. From what I can gather, it was only by the grace of God. And my sheer stubbornness.
Rich, Sarah, and I have started walking Old Indian Road, as it's pretty much a mountain doppelganger to Windham, just shorter. Starting in mid May we walked the hill once up and once down (it's 3/4 of a mile each way) after church. After almost passing out with the extreme heat we'd had, we've now switched our time to early Saturday mornings. Throughout June we have been walking full up, halfway down, back up to the top again, and then full down, which is the equivalent of 3/4 of the dash. Thing is, we're doing it with wrist and ankle weights on, so that when we actually get ready to do the dash it will be easier on our bodies. Talk about ultimate strengthening. Or just being plain nuts. Either way....
We're able to do do the up, half, half, down, in 40 minutes, which isn't terribly bad with weights on. What I'm hoping is to be able to knock a few minutes off my time from last year. Again, though, having had surgery in Jan, as long as I finish I'll be a happy happy girl. I'll see if I can do a vid this Saturday and post it so you get an idea of how steep the hill that we're training on is. It has this one point where we kind of have to hike it or we'd roll.
The awesome thing is, I've resumed chocolate milk after exercise mandate, so we all get to thoroughly enjoy Stewart's chocolate milk upon completion.
What we're going to do is round out June with the full, half, half, full. We'll do July with two full ups (we'll do a car exchange thingie to make it as realistic as possible) followed by two full downs. And for the first week in August, we'll take off the weights and see just how fast we can do the whole thing start to finish, knowing that we'll be running on on August 13. Well, Rich and I will be running it. Sarah is just doing the training for fun, but says that next year she'll run it with us. Next year, though, I'm threatening both the dash AND tough mudder as long as I don't need yet another surgery....
So. I'm going to start running the smaller hills around my house again. I've clocked it, and I'm coming in at 30 seconds faster than last year on my mile, at 9:30, so I'm a bit encouraged about that. And though I plan to hike up Windham this year and not kill myself attempting to run, I know I can run any little flats and the full downhill to make up time, and that excites me.
Have heard I haven't updated this enough lately, so I'll try to start posting weekly with run updates, training tips, etc. OH, and I went to my first ostomy support group meeting. I'll blog that separately next, but how very interesting.
Love ya!
B
