Training Days 1-3; March 15-17, 2010

Training Day 1 - March 15, 2010
According to the weather, this is a perfect day to begin training; a rare day in the middle of March when the the sun is shining, and there's just a smidgen of a breeze. I've got the much traveled Asics on my feet, a trusty bottle of Earth2O in my windbreaker pocket and I'm all ready to go. BTW, I think I neglected to mention that I'm WALKING this marathon, not running. My joints (and other body parts) just can't take the beating of a run unless there's a bear on my tail! I'll check back in about 45 minutes...after the walk.

Well, I did it. Wow! It feels great to get out there; my joints are screaming at me, but I expected that. The strange thing about AS is that it's absolutely necessary to keeping moving to avoid stiffness and reduce pain, but too much of a good thing is, well, too much. I tried to keep it reasonable today though, considering I'm just getting started. Bear in mind that for the past 9 months or so, the best I've been able to do with regard to exercise is take Lucie (my much loved dog) for a 15 minute leisurely trek around the neighborhood for a good sniff and a pee. Well, that and the routine stretches that all us ASers need to do every day to retain as much flexibility as possible.

Tomorrow is another day. I'll continue this missive at the conclusion of tomorrow's training session. Keep movin'--rest is rust!
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Training Day 2 - March 16, 2010
Ugh, lots of rain and wind today. My shins are a bit sore, but that worked out fine on my walk. After the first mile things smoothed out, so I decided to finish for the full 45 minutes. As I was walking, something popped into my mind--I wonder how many 57 year old women are willing to look like a dork just to achieve a goal. All the fitness magazines would lead us to believe that all the females are 25, lean, perfectly tanned, with flawless hair, coordinating crop tops and itty bitty shorts poured onto a size 2 body of perfection. Ha! Let's get real...
I'll check back in tomorrow--it's St. Pat's Day. Keep movin'--rest is rust!
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Training Day 3 - March 17, 2010
Happy St. Patrick's Day! Green is the day and pooped is this sorry excuse for an "athlete". That's what they call us on the team. I know it's all to pump us up. My apologies to the real athletes out there. Did I mention I'm pooped? I walked up hill both ways for 45 minutes. My legs were cooperative, though. They've always been the strongest part of my body...even when I was carrying around a LOT of weight.

Anyway, I felt fairly motivated today. I walked the sidewalk along a busy street during the afternoon commute. Big mistake. I could have disappeared into an abyss of car exhaust, diesel fumes and dust. I managed to survive it, though, and felt invigorated as I turned toward home with the thought of a nice bucket of oats.

What's with the horse lingo? Beats me, it just entered my mind and the thought transmitted onto the page. Sorry about that.

The training schedule calls for 45 minutes again tomorrow, them I'm off Friday. Saturday is the weekly team training day. It'll be the first time I meet the rest of my JIM compadres. I'll blog more about that tomorrow, but for now I won't clog your brain cells any longer. Keep movin'--rest is rust!