To Goal or not to Goal???

The question is still an easy one. Yes, I am still on my marathon path. In these past couple of weeks, I have found that running a marathon is not going to be as hard as I thought. I finally told my mom my goal to complete a marathon. I think I avoided telling her for so long because I knew she was going to take me running with her. I told myself that if I am serious about this then I do need to tell her...so I did. She was really excited and just as I suspected, asked me last Wednesday if I wanted to run with her. She told me she was "only" going to run 3 or 4 hours. I laughed to myself and told her I would love to and asked that she be gentle! We went to Cameron Park and ran almost 4 miles. The cool thing is that we did 1:1. See, my mom hurt herself pretty badly this year and is slowly working her way back to where she was before. This worked out in my favor as well. I had never heard of 1:1 or 2:1 or whatever you feel like doing. Basically what it means is that you run 1 minute and walk 1 minute or you run 2 minutes and walk 1 minute. This can always be modified to each individual person and how they are feeling at the time. I was really excited about that. We completed the run and made plans to return the next day. We took it easy that day because her leg was bothering her and she wanted to be sure she was able to do the 11 miles on Saturday without any problems. I heard "11 miles on Saturday" come out of her mouth and KNEW she was going to invite me. My good ol' mother didn't let me down...she asked me. I quickly tried to see if I had a legitimate excuse to not attend and could not find one. I reluctantly agreed but I knew that I would have to start somewhere if I was serious. I was nervous because I didn't want to let my mom down nor did I want to let myself down. I showed up and we started. We started at Redwood Shelter in Cameron Park. When we started, we did the 1:1. We continued this the whole 11 miles. I tell you this was awesome! I did not feel as exhausted as I thought I would. I actually felt like I had more energy. As we ran, this gave us time to  bond and I was able to ask so many questions I had regarding marathons. She told me that the majority of people do a 1:1, 2:1, 5:1; whatever works for them. This made me realize that my goal is not going to be as hard as I thought it would be. We completed the 11 mile run. It was great! I felt alive and enjoyed being in the fresh air! It really beats running in the gym. I am hurting today (the run was yesterday morning) and I have this feeling that I am going to be hurting more tomorrow. I am still super excited about this run. I have more faith in myself now. I know I can do it!!! I also have a feeling that once I complete my first marathon, it won't be my last. At the end of the 11 mile run, I felt like I could do anything. I felt like I accomplished something...I gave myself a pat on the back!

Still Excited!

One hour at they gym made up for yesterday. Yes I did not go and because I said no excuses, I will not even write it down. It didn't happen but I feel like I made up for yesterday today. I didn't really feel the workout but I made myself stay. I decided to run/walk 3 miles and then experiment with the incline on the treadmill. The run/walk was done more to get my heart rate up and then down and then up again. I hear this is a pretty good cardio workout so why not. I see people on the treadmill with a pretty high incline. I decided since there weren't too many people there I would go ahead and give it a try. I'm always afraid of trying something new when others are around just because I'm afraid of looking silly. Speaking of looking silly, I don't know why I thought I would be able to take a sip of my water while running at a pretty good pace. I guess my brain forgot to tell my arm to stop moving back and forth because it didn't. My arm tried to shove that water bottle into my face causing water to splash on me. I think the man a couple of treadmills saw me. Thank you to him for not laughing out loud! So anyway I did the incline and got brave. Put that bad boy to 6 which is steep for me. I was going along nicely thinking how easy it was. Then that minute hit and so did the feeling! I was actually enjoying it! I decided to walk fast with it up and then put it down and then back up and down. I felt that I got a pretty good workout. One of my fears is that the treadmill will go faster than me and I will go flying off the treadmill...it could happen. BTW...I'm still feeling the excitement about this marathon. I am so excited for the moment when I can say "I completed my first Marathon!" I'm tired and ready to relax with a glass of wine and call it a night.

Before the training

December 18, 2011  I have decided my goal for 2012 will be to complete a marathon. The keyword is complete. I know it will not be easy and know that I will do whatever it takes to complete this marathon. I will run, jog, walk and/or crawl if needed but I will cross that finish line. That just sounded so convincing! I really don't know for a fact that I will complete this marathon. I don't even know for a fact that I will START this marathon. Looking back on the goals set in the past tells me that this goal will end up in the box of could've should've would've but (insert any and all excuses). How do I make sure this goal does not end up a figment of my imagination? You know, I'm really not sure. I hope that putting this out there for everyone to read is a step towards the right direction. The first thing is setting the time frame and the date of completion of this goal. This is something I am still trying to decide. Completing this goal is going to be huge...after all, this would be my first marathon. I want to make sure I give myself enough time to train and fully and slowly prepare my body for this challenge. Completing a marathon is not something I have really given serious thought too. Now, my thoughts are if I am to complete a marathon, why not go big? Why not try to run the Boston Marathon? Why not try to run a marathon in New York? I have checked on line for different marathons and am leaning towards the end of 2012. I have to make one thing clear (for and to myself), it is not a requirement to complete this marathon in Boston or New York. That is not allowed to be an excuse. I really don't want any excuses.  How to stay motivated to complete this? I want to make sure this is something that I am really going to go through with and not slack off in the middle of January! Right now I'm hyped and excited and can't wait to get started. I've had that feeling many times before only to find out that when I was supposed to start as I told myself I would, I kept putting it off to the next day. The "next day" never came. How do I make sure I do not fall into that trap again? They say (and I have heard myself say it often as well) "If you really want it, you will do it." Man that is so much easier to say than to follow! My hope is that by writing every day or every other day will help to keep me motivated. I hope that seeing my progress (or lack of) will keep me in line. My friends and family will be my biggest supporters and motivators.

The surest way not to fail is to determine to succeed.
Richard Brinsley Sheridan