9.30
Well today is a rest day. But I strangely feel like a slacker. I've run or biked everyday until today but when you're triathlon training you're used to doing more than one thing everyday and sometimes twice a day.

I want to do a marathon but I don't want my first marathon to turn out to be like my first Half Ironman - finishing but hating it. I want to run the entire race and smile at the end. No walking for me. I think it's OK to walk in a 1/2 IM cause hey it's a Half Ironman. I mean you've swam and biked etc. and it's OK to be tired. But for a one sport race I want to do that one sport all the way through. No half-stepping and now freakin' walking!

So yesterday I interviewed Danny Dryer, guru of ChiRunning, for a story I'm writing for B.T.com and he suggested that I do the 1/2 marathon in Feb. and then a full one in the fall. I didn't want to do it that way but I think he's right. (I mean he has been running, winning and placing in ultra races for decades).

What kills me is my exboyfriend said the same thing. He's an ultra-runner. He's ran 33 marathons, 5-100s and a slew of ultras. So he knows as well.

So I will take some good free advice and train for the mary still but do the 1/2 in Feb.

Interviewed Danny Dryer today. He's the running guru who has "revoluntionized" the way people run. Imagine running without knee, calf or leg pain? That's what ChiRunning purports to do. I'm not totally convinced that running can be pain free. But I'm going to try Danny's book anyway. He suggested that I do the 1/2 marathon in Feb. and the full marathon in Oct. I mean I've only been running for a year and a few months so I better slow down there. He was really nice and I can't wait to run with him. He's coming to Colorado Springs in November and he's promised to take me running. Sounds really cool.

Holy Mary - Day Two

I've decided to create a blog detailing my training for a marathon. It's so unbelievable that I could even write that sentence - I'm training for a marathon. It's ridiculous considering that in Feburary last year I couldn't run two miles without stopping. Running, you see, isn't my thing. I started running not because I liked running but because I liked swimming. Confused? Read on.

I've always loved to swim. Ever since I was 8 years old and a girl scout braving the wilds of camp in Valparasio Indiana from the wilds of the concrete jungle in Chicago I've loved to swim. Mostly it was the splashing in the water kind but I did some actual races in day camp and to swim in the deep end in the pool near my house ever summer you had to swim the whole length of the pool without drowning. I made it each time. And being a big girl, swimming was the only thing remotely athletic that I could do with the exception of lifting lots of weights.

So when I started dating a marathon runner, I was about 240 pounds he was a lean 6'4 180, I got back into swimming. But running, ha. Never gonna happen. After shooting up to about 260 my voluptious figure turned into just fat and greasy so I decided to get back into the gym. And of course I chose swimming. Now no one has ever lost too much weight swimming but it gave me an excuse to go to the gym every day. This was three years ago. Boy was a slow. It would take me 30 min to swim 1/2 a mile. What a joke, but I was in a routine and I was exercising.

About two and half years ago someone remarked to me that I had a great swim stroke and that I should consider doing a triathlon. I was flattered. Triathlons - whoa they are the holy grail of sport. You not only swim but you bike and run too. Someone actually thought I could complete one of those? I was shocked but awed. Of course the guy I was dating at the time told me to forget about it.
"You don't want to drop dead trying to do more than you can." Lovely. Wonder why I dumped him?

So a couple of more years past and I began going to the gym and working out, lifting weights and swimming when another woman saw me swim and said, "Hey you should do a triathlon. We're doing a team." Cool I thought one part of three no big deal. Course the other women backed out and there was just me.

So a year ago, in January another woman saw me swimming - by this time I was faster, down to 19 minute 1/2 miles - and she wanted me to help her. For what I asked. I'm doing Danskin, it's a triathlon. You know you need to do that. So I signed up never running a day in my life.
Fast forward to today - eight triathlons and a Half IronMan later - and I'm looking for a new challenge.
I will do Ironman Coeur d' Alene in 07 God willing but thought while I'm training and trying to lose weight that I'll do a marathon. Another impossible to knock down!

So on Monday I began the Adidas marathon training plan. Monday was a rest day so I went to spin class. Tuesday I fan 50 min - easy and without effort and still maintained my agonizingly slow but blazing compared to last year's pace of 12 min miles. Wednesday off - spin class.
Today ran 50-min again. I was four seconds faster with my 10K tempo pace thrown in. Not great but not bad.

So here it goes. Now to pick a race????