Marathon Pre-Training, Week 8

This week's stats:

• 7.42 treadmill miles
• 6.53 outdoor miles
• 3 hours on the elliptical machine
• 2 weightlifting sessions
• 3 pounds lost

Total pre-training stats:

• 8 weeks
• 61.36 treadmill miles
• 27.36 outdoor miles
• 13 pounds lost (@ 202)

We were good this week, and didn't miss a single workout.  And the weather turned absolutely beautiful this weekend, so we had a ton of company out on the trail yesterday morning.  Tons of joggers and walkers and bikers, and they were all so happy to be out in the sun!

And if you're wondering, yes, I did remember the sunscreen this time. 

Of course, being Missouri, it's cold and super windy today.  Gotta love it.

Anyway, my new favorite thing at the gym is doing the elliptical machine in reverse.  I've started alternating directions during my elliptical workouts (one song forward motion, one song in reverse) because I'm discovering exactly how underdeveloped my quads really are.  It's significantly more challenging to go in reverse, and you really feel it in your quads and calves and back.  And our trainer has finally moved beyond working our hamstrings most of the time and has given us a more well-rounded leg workout. I'm starting to see little hints that my body might soon look more like it did in high school.  Funny, I hated that body then.  I'm dying to get it back now. 

Slowly but surely, the running part of my walk/run regimen is getting easier.  I'm seeing a very gradual increase in the distance I can comfortably run during each interval (still only .15 - .2 miles at a time, which is sad, I know) and it feels less and less jarring on my body.  So far I haven't had a recurrence of the knee pain.  They're kind of mildly achy after a long walk/run, but not really painful.  I'm just more aware that I have knees, if that makes sense.  Kourt, on the other hand, tried running a bit on Saturday and now has pain in her knees, ankles, and big toe.  For the record, I didn't push her to do it.  And she'll be fine. 

What I'm most proud of at this point is that it's now put in three solid months of consistent commitment to exercise.  Since the beginning of February, there have only been two weeks where I put in less than 11 total miles, and only one where I came in under 8.  I'm kind of surprising myself at how motivated I am to do this, although I'm sure it helps to have a hard deadline that I'm up against.  But most of all I'm really loving the workout routine we're in and how good I feel physically.  For the first time ever, I can actually see myself becoming athletic.  I think it makes a huge difference that I'm not working out just to lose weight.  It's always been a means to an end before, and now I'm approaching it as a pursuit of its own.  And it's pretty cool.