Thursday, February 28, 2008

Training, or lack of



'Life' has this funny way of getting in the way of what you really want to do. Funerals (way too many the past 5 months, 1 just this past week), school, moving and family obligations just keep piling on. It's a challenge for me to balance all of it and I wonder how someone who has kids can do all they do - I salute all of you who are parents and spouses!

I created a pretty strenuous workout schedule to prepare for camp. I have yet to follow it. I'm still working out, just doing my usual 'fly by the seat of my pants' type of schedule. Actually, I'm not even that spontaneous, I just do what I feel my body can handle that day. I've been trying to train for not only the Adventure Race camp but running the Bolder Boulder in May. One of them has to give on certain days and lately the Bolder Boulder has been winning out. Probably because I am not enjoying my bike riding but love my running. I'm hoping I get motivated to bike more after the camp.

My typical schedule is this: Workout 6 days a week in the mornings from 5:30-7:00. The workouts vary from a Strength Training class once a week, weight training 2 other days, then running 4 miles (or an hour) and biking for at least 30 minutes for the other 4 days. On weekends I'll spend a day snowshoeing or hiking.

I've got to admit that I have been a little stressed about my inability to stick with my rather ambitious workout schedule. I have never been athletic, ever. And here I am, planning to spend 3 days with many world class athletes who will leave me in the dust. Am I crazy to be doing this? My fear of heights could seriously freak me out during the rope training; I have never mountain biked in my life and yet I will be biking on a trail that most expert riders say is difficult. What if I can't keep up or even worse, can't do it at all? Geesh, I think I'm crazy to be doing this.


To help me ease these fears I plan on doing some huge workouts during the next two weekends. This Saturday I will be going trail running in the morning for 4 miles, then hike 7 miles up Carpenter Peak in the afternoon. Sunday will be a long workout in the gym, running 4 miles, 30 minutes on the bike and weight training for 30 minutes. I have only 2 weeks left and I don't want to get to camp and think "If I had only done more."


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