4 for 7

That's how many days I worked out last week if you start the week with Monday. Not too shabby, 4 mornings in a row, but by Friday, I was Pooped (with a capital P). I work out with my good friend Katie some mornings and we used to be competitive swimmers....we ask ourselves "how did we get up every morning at 5:15am and practice, go to school, then practice again?" Where did we get that energy? I guess we have silly things like responsibility (e.g. mortgage payments, dogs, husbands, etc.) that get in the way now, but still, it was an impressive feat. Perhaps we trained our bodies though? That's what I'll need to do if I really want to do this marathon.

The workout I'm loving right now is (and I can't believe I'm saying this)...on the treadmill. I used to avoid treadmills like the plague; the feeling of going nowhere fast and staring at the news or my own reflection in the window, blurg! However, Miss Hartong taught me this great way to have an awesome workout and avoid boredom. You start out at a jogging pace for 5 minutes (usually around a 5.6 or 5.8, depending on the feeling of the day), then for the next 5 minutes, you alternate between a sprint (7.6 for me) for a minute, then a jog (5.6) or walk (4.0) for a minute. The next 5 minutes, you sprint at 7.8 and for the last 5 minutes (if you only do 20 minutes), you sprint at 8.0. I know that many a good runner out there may laugh at these paces (since I see these chicks hammering out the 7.6 as their normal pace), but to the middle of the road runner (such as myself), I become SUPER sweaty and my heart rate gets up there. I worked my way up to a 30 minute version this week and I really believe interval training torches the cals and makes you a little faster for the long runs.

Tomorrow my game plan is to work off those weekend calories which consisted of pizza, beer, a Reuben (maybe some tots! woops) and a few rb&vs (red bull and vodkas). Not a healthy weekend whatsoever; but next week, we start again! (And the treadmill torch...which I just named this fun workout will be my cardio of choice tomorrow).

It's been a long winter...

And it doesn't seem to be letting up in Columbus, Ohio these days! Ah well, life is good. Adam and I had a wonderful wedding (the perfect day) and had the best honeymoon in Costa Rica ever. We are truly fortunate and now we're settling into being an old married couple :o) A snippet of Costa Rica below...but more to come and hopefully wedding pics too!

As we near the end of January and as people are desperately holding onto their New Years Resolutions, I have still have hope for 2011. I don't really call it a "Resolution" per se, but rather, "this is the year of...(fill in the blank)." 2008 & 2009 was the Year(s) of the House. 2010 was the year of the Big Wedding. 2011 is going to be (drum role please) "the year of being FIT." Yes, it's time to conquer some of my biggest fitness goals I've had for myself since the days of super serious swimming.

What's on the docket? The big events are as follows:

May - Columbus 1/2 Marathon (which will be my 4th)

June - Warrior Dash (with the hubs...pure dirty obstacle course goodness)

July - Possibly my first triathlon - still TBD

August - Pelotonia - 102 mile bike race with raising $1800 for cancer research

October - Columbus Full Marathon

Whew...tall order here. I'm getting back into the blogging mode though to hopefully keep myself motivated and talk about the fun (or lack thereof) of my trainings for this year.

Oh, there is fun planned for this year as well though including: "the Partees in Disney"and tons of great weddings!