Walking Away the....Marathon??

Okay, so one month to go to the half marathon. I've been doing my Walk Away the Pounds, I had mastered the 5-mile an hour walk. I was feeling good. Feeling healthy. I went out and purchased a good pedometer - not a cheapy Wal Mart one that both Danette and I agreed was not a good one. I set it up...well, Frank set it up and got down to walking.

And wanted to chuck it right out the window.

I have no doubt that this is a great pedometer. I researched them and found one in my price range that had all great reviews on Amazon. I think that the Walk Away the Pounds is lying! That's right, I said it! My five mile walk only registered 3.28 miles! So I thought about it and said, well maybe all the kicking, knee lifts and back kicks don't count for full steps so I skipped them the next time and no! I still come up with only 3/4 of a mile for her every mile! How can that be??

I'm sure that right now some of you are saying "Gee, Stace, maybe you're not doing it right!" IT'S WALKING!!! HOW CAN I NOT DO IT RIGHT??? I keep pace with her and sometimes even go faster because I'm in the zone! And I'm STILL not making her mile.

So I'm putting it out there to you, friends. What are your thoughts? I have a month to go and my confidence is SHOT! I went out walking yesterday on the trails of a new park. It was a beautiful day for walking. And in one hour...I manage 2.68 miles. Granted, it was very hilly terrain which I was not used to and my body is complaining BIG TIME today. But I'm curious for your ideas on which should I trust here: the new pedometer or the DVD?

Anyone? Anyone?

Updates and No Worries...

I wanted to thank all of you who commented yesterday on the marriage post and to let you know that you needn't worry: Frank does occassionally read my blog, but everything that was written there yesterday, was already discussed to the point of my ears bleeding all weekend long. Writing it out was just my final way of venting. We ended the weekend with a long talk and are still in love. No worries.

Then there's Nick: He's still up in the mountains but a little less enthralled by it all. He called me after being there for three days and was having MAJOR food withdrawals. You see, he basically lives on pizza, pasta and burgers. All big no-no's at the nutritionist retreat. He's not a big breakfast eater, she's making him eat all kinds of veggie omelet's. He doesn't do vegetables, in general, but he's eating "healthy" burgers wrapped in lettuce leaves. He's crying about eating rabbit food and being willing to kill someone for a Big Mac! That wasn't a good sign on day three!!

We spoke to him again yesterday - TWICE - and he's even more miserable! Don't get me wrong, he is loving being there and socializing and enjoying the scenery, but the food thing is just majorly on his mind. He got his hair cut, he's on dietary supplements to help his acne, I mean, he will be new and improved when he comes home - and makes himself a big, fat, heaping bowl of pasta that will undo nine days of hard work!! He'll be home Wednesday night. It says Tuesday night on MY calendar but apparently, I was wrong. Amazing how much that happens where he is concerned.

As for the housing situation, I have spoken to, I think, EVERYONE in the town hall building and basically there are no laws/codes in effect that say that the landlord has to put in insulation. There WILL BE come the first of the year!! I'm pretty jazzed about that. I've been scouring the paper's and Craigslist looking for a place for us and have found none that I would actually consider living in. You know, you do nothing but hear on the news about people losing their homes and the market being flooded with places! Where are these places??? They're certainly NOT around here! So my search continues.

Six weeks to go until the half marathon. I'm feeling pretty good. I have mastered the five-mile and hour rhythm and now just have to really time myself and actually DO a three-hour walk. I don't see that happening just quite yet. I just really want to get myself disciplined enough to walk consistently. It's not happening right now and I have no excuse for it except laziness.

Oh, and I'm still unemployed.

Sigh.

Oh, Yeah...I've Got a Marathon in Three Months!

Okay, but to be honest, it's a HALF marathon and I am walking it, not running it. But still, thirteen miles is a big deal and it does require some training.

I've been doing water aerobics for two months now with some treadmill walking and some Walk Away the Pounds DVD's thrown in, but now it's time to get serious. I got an actual half-marathon training workout from Prevention magazine that I will be following. It has me scheduled to start actual training in two weeks but I think I am going to try and ease in to it before going at it full steam.

As of right now I am walking with ease at a 15-minute mile. At that rate I will finish the marathon in just the right amount of time without the bus coming to get me. But wouldn't it be nice to get there a little bit BEFORE I even see the bus coming around the corner? I mean, I'm not trying for any award or to set some great time, but I just think that it would be nice to finish without the anxiety of "Oh, no! Is that THE bus coming up behind us?" Who needs that kind of stress? Not me!

So today it's water aerobics. Tomorrow will be a 4-mile walk. Wednesday, water aerobics, Thursday, cross training, Friday, a 4-mile walk and I will take the weekend off. I know there are some of you out there who probably are looking at that and scratching your head like "What kind of wacky training is that?" For now, it's mine. I'm just trying to have fun with all of this.

Think endurance, friends! Pray for the 12 minute mile to come to me with ease!

HELP!!

I need somebody
Help
Not just anybody
Help
You know I need someone
Help....

Okay, so the codeine that I'm taking makes me loopy. We've established that already, right. But loopy or not, you gotta love the Beatles.

But I really do need help. Stop what you are thinking, Michelle and Cathleen!! I need a treadmill. Desperately. We are trying to train for this half marathon and I just can't get in to the groove that I had when I had the treadmill. I'm going crazy! You know how Frank's friend Rob had lent me his and then after the Disney trip I gave it back? Well...I would LOVE to borrow it from him again but he and Frank aren't talking. I'm so desperate that I have contemplated calling the man myself and trying to mend the relationship between the two of them but I just can't make myself interfere.

Stupid Rob.

So if anyone out there has a treadmill that is just sitting in storage (or sitting in your "office" mocking you) please consider lending it out to a poor, pathetic walker who needs to get her butt in gear so that she can do a half marathon and then convince her husband to let her do the Disney half-marathon in 2011.

When I was younger so much younger than today...Sorry, now you'll all have the Beatles on the brain for the rest of the day!

Of Marathons and Men...

So the training has begun. Nothing major, just another good three mile walk. It felt good. I felt good when it was done. I have not done any major changes to my diet as of yet. What is amazing me the most is the reaction of family and friends to this whole idea. I was thinking that people would be excited for us and encouraging. Apparently, not so much. Maybe we're not as committed to finishing things as we like to think we are. But that's okay. Me, personally, I am not doing this for anyone else's approval. I am doing it for me. It is something that I have wanted to do for a long time and so I am doing it. My face will not be on the front of a Wheaties box, there will be no "endorsement" deals, I will just feel good about myself.

Frank is kind of quiet about this whole endeavor. He is neither cheering nor is he telling me not to do it. I was kind of hoping for him to choose a side of the fence but he has not as of yet. We'll see how that all goes.

We had a weird morning this morning. One minute we were laughing and joking and then in the blink of an eye, everything was different. I won't go in to specifics (for his sake) but he said something, then I said something. I thought we were joking but apparently he did not think so. Things got ugly. I slammed some doors, he refused to let me finish getting ready when I needed to...it was just a crappy way to start the day.

Why is it that everything a man says to a woman is a joke, but what a woman says in a joking way is taken seriously? I just don't get it. Either way, my morning was crap. We left without saying good-bye to each other and I pray that I don't come to regret that. We're both working all day and then he is going to play with the band right from work. He did that last week and when I went to bed early and missed his coming home, he was in a snit about that. So I guess I will have to stay up late for his sake and be the good wife.

Being the good wife sucks sometimes.

Will she run???

And by "she", I mean me. And by "run", I mean speed walk. And the answer is....
YES! The girls and I are planning to do a local half marathon in November. I know, I know, it's not the dream of the Disney half marathon but it is already 90% full of this coming January and I just didn't want to make the huge financial commitment if I didn't train properly and couldn't do it. So to take the pressure off of myself and my friends, we decided that we would do a half marathon here in Raleigh for November of 2009 and then go for the 2011 Disney half marathon.

I AM SO PSYCHED!!!

This is not something that I am taking lightly. I am looking at a lot of different training strategies - but I am NOT looking for others telling me how to do it. I totally want to be in my own comfort zone here and to train at my own pace. I have no intention of running at any point. I just can't do it. My heart rate goes up extremely quick and the doctors have no idea as to why but because of that, running is just not an option. Nor do I want it to be.

I really believe that we can do this. We're not looking to break any records, we're doing this because we want to, because it seems like it could be fun and what a neat example to set for our kids!

So don't be looking for me to be running by your home or jogging down the block. I'll be sticking (at least at the beginning) with the workouts from the Walk Away the Pounds series and my Power 90. Maybe the closer to the Fall we'll hit the actual road to get used to walking the pavement but for now, it's all indoors.

I'm just too excited!!!