Girl with a plan

This Saturday morning I took my first class at the community center. It was the Indoor Cycle class and it was tough! I think my first mistake was bringing my old skool Nalgene water bottle, which didn't fit into the holder on my stationary bike. So when the instructor called out, "OK, water break!" I could only look longingly at the cubby holding my stuff and keep peddling. At one point we hopped off to do a few squats, so I dashed to the back of the room and took a long swig, but that was my only drink the whole hour. I really pushed myself and felt like puking at the end of class. Great work out! Ha! (I didn't, by the way)

Even though I was dying during the whole class, I loved it! We were facing a long window that overlooked the "grounds" of the community center and it started to snow halfway through the class--just a flurry, bit it was a pretty distraction. I felt like I got a great cardio workout in and they even incorporated some arm strengthening ("bike push ups" and supporting ourselves on one arm to engage the triceps). The class was fairly small and most of the participants were at the same level of intensity. This next Saturday I'm planning out checking out two other classes, but I could definitely see myself hitting up the Indoor Cycle class again!

Now. Onto more important things...I'm doing it. I'm running a half marathon.

The race

Earth Day Run Half Marathon (in St. Cloud )

The company

Abbie

Twin sister, biggest cheerleader, most likely to trip over nothing five seconds into the race

Nikolai

Abbie's BF, old as f*ck (JK, BFF!), most likely to randomly jump and spin while running


The Training 

Hal Higden's half marathon Novice 1 program

With a few exceptions, each week will look like this for the three of us...

• Monday: Strengthen and Stretch 
• Tuesday: Run 3-5 miles 
• Wednesday: short run or cross training 
• Thursday: Run 3-5 miles + strength training 
• Friday: Rest 
• Saturday: Cross training 
• Sunday: long run 

source: pinterest

I'm going to try to run outside as often as possible and use the indoor track at the Community Center when it's not. I have to keep Cosmo in mind because he needs his morning exercise and I just don't feel right making Pete walk him every day. I'm also trying to work some classes into this schedule. This week is a test run, but if all goes well, here's what my schedule will look like:

• Monday: Run 3-5 miles (Pete walks Cosmo) 
• Tuesday: Walk Cosmo, 6 a.m. Tone & Stretch class 
• Wednesday: Short run with Cosmo 
• Thursday: Run 3-5 miles, 6 a.m. Bootcamp class (I'll have to be in the 4:30 a.m. club these days) 
• Friday: Walk Cosmo 
• Saturday: WW meeting at 7 a.m. or 8:30 a.m. (we'll see which works best), 9 a.m. Cardio Plus class, 10:05 a.m. Yoga class 
• Sunday: Long run with my homies 

I expect I'll have to make adjustments here or there. Saturday back-to-back classes may not be feasible, and there's the Indoor Cycle class at 8:10 a.m., which I may choose from time to time. But this is the general outline and I'm thrilled to have a plan! It's so much easier for me to force myself out of bed when I have a schedule to keep.

The tools

I created a Google calendar with the Hal Higden 12-week schedule plus 2 weeks I repeated because we have 14 until the race. I shared the calendar with Abbie and Nik and we've all synched it to our iPhones. Abbie and Nik may have discovered today that I set up alerts for each training item to go off every day at 5:30 a.m. :-D Hope they enjoyed that!

I'm using MapmyRun for my outside runs, but indoors I have no way to track my pace. For the past few weeks, I've just been starting my timer when I run and then calculating my average pace at the end, but I'd like something a little more precise. I'm guessing I won't find that in an app (right?), so if anyone has any suggestions, I'm all ears!

I got some great outdoor running gear for Christmas: thermal running tights, a new headband, a water belt, and some super sweet road IDs. I'm hoping I'll have many chances to use them!

The start

Today was training day 1: a 3.5-mile run. I ran it on the indoor track because it was 1 degree this morning. Tomorrow I'm taking the Tone and Stretch class and I'm really hoping I like it as well as the indoor cycle class. Classes are the way to go, I think. The perfect way to push yourself!

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