I've never been a great long distance runner. I could keep up, but it was always more of a chore for getting in shape for soccer. It was always just a pain in the ass before doing sprints (which I loved). Well last summer I started running more and more long distance and eventually got up to around 6 miles in one run. I loved it.

So the season is changing and I'm going to aim for a half-marathon.

I've taken the training guide from Higdon and rearranged it so the girlfriend can run with me (which inevitably will slow me down a lot). I'm throwing in some sprint training and plyos on Tuesdays because while being able to run long distance is good, I still need to be quick for soccer.

Running Training
Monday- Long Run and Weight Training
Tuesday- Sprints/Plyometrics
Wednesday- Medium Run and Weight Training
Thursday- Light Exerise on Elliptical or Bike
Friday- Medium Run and Weight Training
Saturday- Rest (I often work 10 hours on Saturdays)
Sunday- Short Run (I'll also have soccer for a couple weeks so this will be very light to start)

Weight Training
I'm basically following the Navy Seal training guide. This includes pushups/situps/pullups in superset form MWF. I'm doing this with a few changes. I'd prefer to do this before work, but with the girlfriend deal I'll just end up doing them after the running.

No pull-up bar so I'll be doing handstand pushups.
I'm adding core strength exercises such as side bridges.

Food/Other Crap
I'm going to be keeping a pretty strict food regiment which I'll track on fitday so I can access it at work/school. Weigh-in's will be on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. One cheat meal per week, most likely on Friday or Saturday night. I'm also going to try and take a weekly picture (which I probably won't post on here :))

Any comments or critiques would be appreciated.

Good luck with your running Ryan, I look forward to following your journal.

So today is my first "official" day I guess, though I did run last week to try and get a little acclimated to running. I definitely jumped right into the deep end today, but I really enjoyed it. About 2 miles in my mp3 player died, and I was left without music but I think it actually sped me up. I must have a tendency to just run to the music and running sans music allowed me to keep up a pretty good pace.

My eating didn't go too well today. Me, being the smartass I am, set my clock to the wrong time last night. So today when I woke up it was 6:45 instead of 5:45 and I only had about 15 minutes to get out the door. Tomorrow will be a little different I hope.

I also "missed" my weight training today. I had to take the gf to the library and help her look for references so I didn't get to even start running till late. I'm just going to do it tomorrow instead.

_______________
Distance: 4 Miles
Time: 37:07

So the meals were completely messed up today. I was dragged into a 3.5 hour meeting at work and basically skipped two meals because of it. Also I completely forgot to check what my fitday account name is and I'm way too lazy to type in all of the food again. I'm just going to eat good meals today and hopefully tomorrow goes better to plan.

I'm also not really sure on how to do this "sprint" thing. Today I ran around a park nearby jogging two poles and sprinting one and it's about .8 or so miles around the place. It was a pretty good workout, and I could see me implementing that with a couple more set sprints. I'm about to hit up Kroger for some grub, and finish off the night with the weight training and some guitar playing.

Who's that idiot running on the side of the road during a thunderstorm?

Oh, thats right, it's me.

It's been storming all day here. At the plant where I work, a bolt of lighting hit that was so strong it literally shook the trailer that I work from. I didn't want to skip a workout, and I managed to find a decent break in the storm. 'Bout 1.25 or so miles into the run it starts to rain, and before I even get to 1.5 I start seeing flashes of lighting and turn back. If there wasn't lightning out there, I'd still be running.

Only bad news of the day, the headphones to my mp3 player have broken. The right one pretty much doesn't work and I think its from the hell I've put them through jogging with them over the last half year. Looks like I'll get a new pair tomorrow. I've been thinking about those ones that go around your ears, they seem like they'd stay on fairly well. Anyone have any experience with these?

It's push up time and then I have to go tutor a couple girls in Physics II. Surprisingly it's usually quite fun and both of the girls being very pleasing to the eye doesn't hurt either.


_______________
Distance: 1.25 mi
Time: Totally forgot my watch...

So it just started hailing, and doing so very very hard.


So in the space of about a week to week and a half we've gotten almost 80 degree temps, then freezing temps and snow, then hardcore lightning storms who then threw some decent sized hail in for good measure. All we need now is some tornadoes and we'd hit for the cycle!

EDIT: So around the time that I need to leave, the sky magically clears up and it looks perfect for a run. Awesome.

I recieved one of the worst compliments I can remember last night. My girlfriends best friend (who I haven't seen in a couple weeks actually) commented that it looked like I had lost some weight.

Normally, this sounds like a nice compliment but all I could think of was how bad it was that where I am now looks like I've lost weight. Where was I before that where I am now looks good? I'm pretty glad that she told me that actually, it might not have had the effect she thought it would at that moment but it's definetely given me a new motivation.

Got to the gym last night and did a nice 30 min on the elliptical. Thankfully there was soccer on the tv so it made the time go even faster. Whenever I'm running inside it seems to take forever.

So I've been seriously thinking about a marathon in November. It'll give me around 8 months of serious training (9 if you count the light runs I did last month). I've read that 8 months is a pretty short time to get ready for one, but seeing as even when I'm a little out of shape I'm still very athletic I think I can do this.

The current plan would be to continue my half training, take a week to two "off" doing no big long runs and then embark on an 18-week training schedule for the marathon. It seems pretty daunting but exciting at the same time.

I won't be able to do the marathon where I live (Louisville), and I was looking into the Philadelphia marathon since it's date is in the middle of November giving me the most time to train.


Anyways, today's a nice 3 miler and some weight training. Hopefully the girlfriend manages to run with me today. If she keeps having to skip for other things it's going to get to the point where I'm running too far for her to keep up.

Rest day was nice, even had a "cheat meal" which I planned for and even accounted for calorie wise.

Today's supposed to be a short little 2mi run, but I won't be able to do it.

I had a soccer game this morning and the fields were half mud and half puddles. About mid-way through the second half I went to take off into a sprint and my right foot just slid through the mud. My right hammy just lit up. It's nothing bad, but I definitely tweaked the thing pretty good. So I'm going to be taking a couple days off as far as running. Theres no use forcing the issue and hurting myself even more.

Worst part is, I just bought brand new running shoes yesterday. Now it'll be a while before I even get to try them.