In the Immortal Words of Cee-Lo Green...

Forget YOU, Mother Nature!

There will be no interpretive dance for you. At least not this week.


I was supposed to do a 3-miler tonight, and 5 miles on Thursday. But apparently we haven't seen the last of Old Man Winter and we will be getting some snow on Wednesday and Thursday.

WTF, Mother Nature? WTF?

Anyway, I'm a bit grumpy about this, but I'm not going to let it stop me from getting in my training. So when I got home from work, I put on some gloves. Two pairs of pants. A long-sleeved tech-T. Also a windbreaker. Oh, and some ear warmers. (Am still a Florida girl at heart.)

Once I got out there and started moving, I hit my groove pretty quickly and wound up doing 5 miles tonight instead. I'm not sure yet if on Thursday I will brave the snow, sleet, and other weather-related miseries and tackle the 3 miles outside, or if I'll have to revisit the treadmill. I'm playing this one by ear. We'll see if Mother Nature gives the Old Man the boot.

3-Day for the Cure: Training Week Nineteen

Have I mentioned how much I love spring?

'Cause I do. I really, really do. Every single mile I walked this week was outside. Also, because it's been so nice, I've been going in the evening instead of the morning. Alone, either one of these things is cause for celebration, but together? I feel the urge to compose a poem... or maybe a song and interpretive dance dedicated to Mother Nature. She rocks my socks.

As hard as it is to drag myself out of bed in the morning to walk, I am also the sort of woman who really enjoys coming home from work to spend some quality time on the couch with my husband and our cats. (And maybe a glass of wine. Or two.) I really thought it would be harder to convince myself to get home, change into comfy walking clothes, and head right back out the door. But I'm finding that I really look forward to it.

I think it helps that we have an upscale outdoor shopping plaza right behind our apartment. It's a half-mile loop all the way around and makes for great window shopping and people watching. Plus it's well-lit, and - bonus! - they pipe awesomely bad 80s music throughout so I can leave the headphones behind (which, - PSA guys! - is admittedly boring, but also safer). On the downside, there are no hills so I'm unable to get that side of training in and on busier days I have to do a bit of dodging and weaving so as not to run into anyone. (People do not have any better walking skills than they do driving skills when they have a cell phone glued to their ear. And don't get me started on those SUV sized strollers. Sometimes I feel like Frogger, yo.)

I'll definitely continue to use the plaza in the middle of the week for my shorter walks, but as the weekend walks get longer, I'm planning on joining up with other training groups to keep things interesting and make some new friends.

In other news, my New Balance shoes are awesome. I had a small issue with a blister earlier this week, but this was entirely the fault of my socks. The New Balance socks I bought with the shoes are equally fantastic, but I made the mistake of only buying two pairs. On Thursday, I decided they were a little too ripe to wear again, so I donned a pair of my older socks to see how they fared. About four miles in I could feel a hot spot forming on my baby toe. I finished the walk with minimal pain, but they definitely aren't going to be foot friendly for anything over three miles. A little bit of lancing, some Neosporin, and a bandaid, and I'm good as new and have plans to buy more New Balance socks this week. They're cuter, anyway.

On the whole, this week went very well. I do think I'm going to go ahead and pick up some additional cross-training. This past week I did a bit of P90X Kenpo X, but found that it bugged my knees with all the twisting and punching and kicking, so I'm probably going to stick to strength training exercises on my cross-training days.

I so want to be a kickboxing bad-ass, but it might have to wait until after the 3-Day.

Suggested Training
Monday - Rest
Tuesday - 3 Miles Easy Walk
Wednesday - 15 Minutes Moderate Cross-Training
Thursday - 5 Miles Moderate Walk
Friday - 30 Minutes Easy Cross-Training
Saturday - 6 Miles Moderate Walk
Sunday - 5 Miles Moderate Walk
Total Mileage - 19

Actual Training
Monday - Rest
Tuesday - 3 Miles Moderate Walk
Wednesday - 30 Minutes Moderate Cross-Training (P90X Kenpo X)
Thursday - 5 Miles Moderate Walk
Friday - Rest
Saturday - 6.5 Miles Moderate Walk
Sunday - 5 Miles Moderate Walk
Total Mileage - 19.5

Just 124 days!

3-Day for the Cure: Training Week Twenty

Spring (if not yet completely sprung) is showing some weak but promising signs of defeating winter sometime soon. Ever the optimist, I have ditched the treadmill in favor of doing some walking in the fresh, albeit brisk, air.

So on Saturday, Ryan and I drove over to the Jamaica Pond. A 1.5 mile loop, it made for a beautiful morning jaunt.

I'm still lacking in the cross-training department, but since I was a bit behind on mileage in previous weeks, I didn't want to ramp up too quickly on other aspects of my training. (At least that's the excuse I'm using tonight.) I plan to add one day of cross-training this week, and then add a second day around Week 16 or so.

On a related note, Ryan and I received P90-X as a Christmas gift and I'll be incorporating these DVDs a few times a week to supplement my workouts.

We've already done a few of these and they're... uh... intense!

Although I find him highly entertaining, I'm pretty sure if I tried to fully incorporate Tony Horton along with Susan G. Komen into my training schedule I would make it forty minutes into Plyometrics and promptly collapse into a puddle of spandex, sweat and, most likely, drool.

Thus, as intrigued as I am by the Beach Body concept, I'm going to be judicious about this for now since the 3-Day is my priority.

Anyway, this is what I was supposed to do this week:

Suggested Training
Monday - Rest
Tuesday - 3 Miles Easy Walk
Wednesday - 15 Minutes Moderate Cross-Training
Thursday - 4 Miles Moderate Walk
Friday - 30 Minutes Easy Cross-Training
Saturday - 6 Miles Easy Walk
Sunday - 4 Miles Easy Walk
Total Mileage - 17

And this is what I did:

Actual Training
Monday - Rest
Tuesday - 3 Miles Moderate Walk
Wednesday - Rest
Thursday - 4 Miles Moderate Walk
Friday - Rest
Saturday - 6 Miles Moderate Walk
Sunday - 4 Miles Moderate Walk
Total Mileage - 17

I'm proud to have hit my mileage for the week, even if the cross-training was a giant fail. I'm looking forward to seeing what the next week holds.

These Shoes Are Made For Walking

A few years ago, my good friend Laura and I ran the Disney marathon. Being both more fleet of foot and athletically inclined than I, she finished in under four hours and had to wait around for another hour and a half for me to cross the finish line. As I said, she's a good friend. (At least Disney takes care of its runners and she got to wait where the bagels, fruit, and Gatorade are plentiful. I, on the other hand, was fighting the urge to crawl my way through my last 7 miles and seriously contemplated kissing the girl handing out little Dixie cups of beer at mile 19.)

But I digress.

The following weekend, in the spirit of female fellowship, she asked, "Do you want to get a pedicure with me?"

Now, ordinarily to a recovering marathoner these are magical words. Wouldn't you want to treat your feet after they carried you through 26.2 blister-filled miles in one morning?

To this marathoner, however, it was a horrifying prospect. And not a particularly financially wise one either.

"Laura," I pointed out. "I have four toenails."

I don't always have four toenails. Most of the time I have the regular amount. (Except right now. Right now I have eight.) But usually there are ten.

See, my toes are unique. They generally appear quite unassuming. Sort of cute in an ugly sort of way? But when I start training for any sort of athletic endeavor they swell up like miniature puffer fish which in turn causes the dreaded black toenail. After I pop the blister underneath the nail, eventually the toenail falls off. Or, if I get impatient, I pull them off.

This, while not exactly comfortable, is not as painful as it sounds. And they grow back, I swear! But obviously it's not a desirable situation, and so it's been an ongoing mission of mine to find shoes that do not cause this to a happen.

Nike wasn't the one to win my heart. I really thought Asics and I would sail off into the sunset together, but I was wrong. For awhile Brooks and I had a steady thing going. But even their promise of a wide toe box and fitted heel could not conquer the inevitable toe swelling.

I've been a little bit of a sneaker slut over the years, and today I surrendered the latest in a string of footwear fails. Sauconys, just so you know, are also not "the one," and are the current reason for two of my toes sporting the naked look.

So, with hope in my heart, I headed over to the New Balance store behind our apartment complex to find the shoes in which I will walk the 3-Day. Their method of sizing was all very high tech and involved a computer that evaluated my stockinged feet and confirmed what I already knew.

I have fat toes, guys.

Fortunately, I have a medium arch, which means I don't suffer from over- or under-pronation. After trying on several pairs of unsatisfactory shoes, I developed a crush on both the 760s and the 860s. I decided to get a pair of each and will trade them off during training, as well as during the walk.

They're incredibly comfortable, and have good cushioning and a relatively wide toe box. And the 760s are the official shoe for the Susan G. Komen 3-Day for the Cure which is cool. But also?

They're sort of hot.

I don't want to jump the gun, but me (and my toes) just might be in love.

Pura Vida

As I may have mentioned, the view during my winter training walks has not been particularly inspirational.

The week before last, however, Ryan and I jetted off to Costa Rica to visit family. As you might imagine, the scenery changed drastically for the better.

This was a much needed and very welcome vacation. Unfortunately, I really didn't do much in the way of getting my feet, calves, and thighs ready for the walk.

On the bright side, my mouth, esophagus, and stomach got a real workout in the beginning stages of their preparation for all of the drinking and eating I will need to do during the 3-Day!

We did go for a few walks and hikes, but I didn't really track the distances because I was too busy fantasizing about moving to Costa Rica.

Needless to say, it was tough getting back into gear once we came back to the States. The first weekend back I gazed sadly out the window at the sleet falling and opted to mope instead of train.

But, with the temperatures warming up, I'm feeling motivated once again. This past week wasn't perfect, but it wasn't too bad either.

*Note - I'm switching from counting up in weeks to counting down. This is how the Susan G. Komen 3-Day for the Cure Suggested Training Schedule does it and to make things easy on myself this is how I'm going to do it too. Math is hard, y'all.

TRAINING WEEK 21

Suggested Training

Monday - Rest

Tuesday - 3 miles Easy Walk

Wednesday - Rest

Thursday - 4 miles Moderate Walk

Friday - 30 minutes Cross-Training

Saturday - 5 miles Easy Walk

Sunday - 4 miles Easy Walk

Total Mileage - 16

Actual Training

Monday - Feeling lazy and not at all thrilled about first day back at work after vacation.

Tuesday - Drank copious wine previous night to take mind off the fact that I am not in Costa Rica.

Wednesday - 3 miles Moderate Walk

Thursday - 3 miles Intense Walk

Friday - 3 miles Moderate Walk

Saturday - Attended Getting Started meeting.

Sunday - 5 miles Moderate Walk

Total Mileage - 14

This next week ups the ante a bit. Instead of having two rest days and one day of cross-training, I will now have just one day of rest and two that involve athletic activities other than walking.

Since I have yet to actually incorporate cross-training this should be interesting.

3-Day for the Cure: Training - Week Twenty Four

Although I've been training informally for awhile now, this past week kicked off the official 24-week training schedule.

It... uh... did not go so well.

Unless, that is, you believe training also includes drinking numerous adult beverages and tipsily wandering around Boston with your husband, a dear friend, and her boyfriend.

Which... and I know this is probably surprising if you know me... I don't.

This is what my week was supposed to look like:

Suggested Training

Monday - Rest
Tuesday - 3 miles Easy Walk
Wednesday - Rest
Thursday - 3 miles Moderate Walk
Friday - 30 minutes Cross-Training
Saturday - 3 miles Easy Walk
Sunday - 3 miles Easy Walk

Tuesday went as planned, although I am opting to ramp up the whole "easy walk" concept throughout the training process. I am also using this as an opportunity to get fit, so I prefer to work up a bit of a sweat. I like to hike up the incline level to 3.5 or 4 and maintain at least a 3.5 - 3.7 mph pace. This is not, by any means, an intense workout, but I have to concentrate more at this level than I might at a more comfortable 3.0 mph pace and 1.0 incline.

Anyway, knowing that T and C were coming into town, I skipped the rest day on Wednesday and fit in another 3 miles of moderate walking. Two thumbs up for prior proper planning!

My intention was to do the same on Thursday, then to skip Friday and do my cross-training and another walk day on Saturday and Sunday.

This, friends and neighbors, is where the game plan failed.

As you may already be aware, I turned 36 this past year. I like to think of myself as a young 36, but I have definitely begun the downhill slide toward 40. I have wrinkles. And gray hair. And for the joyous among you who have not yet said farewell to your 20s, what this means is that your capacity to go out and drink and be able to rally the next day is severely diminished.

I am functional. I can even fake manage cheerful.

But following a night of 2 gummy bear martinis, a pint of raspberry chocolate stout, a cheap bottle of Chardonnay from Whole Foods, and a mere 5 hours of sleep? The gym is just a bit beyond my reach.

I haven't seen T since our wedding, in which she served as bridesmaid extraordinaire. Additionally, we hadn't yet met C, her boyfriend. Since she was only in town three days, and I wasn't able to take off of work, we really had to maximize our nights. This was already a recipe for training disaster.

Plus, this is T.

T, if you hadn't noticed, is really hot. This often makes for interesting nights out and these past few days were no exception, particularly when you add in an equally hot boyfriend, and a husband (Ryan) and wife (me) whose idea of an really exciting Friday night has recently come to involve a competitive game of Scrabble and a 6-pack of beer.

Needless to say, I did not get up and walk on Thursday or Friday. And Friday night's excursion, which involved several shots, a fierce game of beer pong, and meandering over cobblestones in high heels did not leave me especially enthusiastic about doing anything on Saturday beyond sitting in on our couch in my underwear and a tank top.

And aren't Sundays almost by definition supposed to be lazy?

So - best intentions aside - this was my training for the week:

Actual Training

Monday - Rest
Tuesday - 3 miles Moderate Walk
Wednesday - 3 miles Moderate Walk
Thursday - Rest
Friday - Wore a pedometer (yes, am a big dork and clearly not fashionable at all) and when I last glanced at it at 10PM I had hit over 8,000 steps for the day. Which is almost 5 miles in theory. However, when I got home at 1AM I was at 356 steps because it was a brand new shiny day and holy hell we are never out this late and I have no earthly idea how many steps I actually hit but OMG how much did I drink and zzzzzz....
Saturday - Walk to the bathroom 30+ times to pee; contemplate a shower
Sunday - Additional recovery necessary

Clearly alcohol is not my friend.

I need to get my ass in gear.

Snow. We Have it.

I live in Boston.

Right now, Boston looks like this:

(Actually, it looked like that a few weeks ago. Add another 20 or so inches on top of that and you'll have a good idea of what Boston looks like now.)

Anyway, what this means is that for the time being my training looks like this:

I am not a treadmill girl. But I am forcing myself to become a treadmill girl because I would like to be able to actually use my legs and possibly my feet again come August.

And in order for that to be possible, ladies and gents, I must train.

Now, my six month training schedule hasn't officially begun but almost every morning for the past two weeks I've ignored the snooze button on my alarm and instead headed to the gym. Can't say I'm exactly jumping with joy over this schedule.

But then I remind my grumpy sleepy self why I'm attempting to walk a few miles before I've had even a taste of coffee. And it becomes worth it.

Nevertheless, I'm hoping that Mr. Groundhog is accurate with his prediction this year of an early spring. Can't lose that dreadmill soon enough.