Innovative Training Ideas

I'm trying some new stuff in my half-marathon training lately. It's quite innovative.

Number one, I'm ACTUALLY FOLLOWING MY PLAN. If the Runner's World Smart Coach plan says 7 miles with warm up, 5 miles @10:18, and cool down, by golly, I'm doing it. Last time, I kind of fudged on those mid-week runs. My attitude was more like, "Six miles on a Wednesday? Meh, I'll do four and call it a day." I was good about keeping up with the long runs, but now I realize the sort-of-long runs are important, too. I'm using my plan as a GUIDE instead of general guidelines/suggestions.

Number two, I'm really making an effort at some EXERCISE BESIDES RUNNING. Let's face it. Runnimg gets old sometimes. And it seems to mostly work my legs. What about the rest of me? So, now I'm doing core and arm work. I'm doing crunches on the stability ball somewhat regularly and have been trying to survive the Push Up Challenge. I'm in Week 5 and I must admit it's a little RIDICULOUS. It took me two days to do Day 1 of week 5. Day two isn't looking much better---it's something like 7 or 8 sets of 15-20. I figure spreading it out over two days isn't so bad. I'm still doing the work.

Number three, I'm putting QUALITY FUEL IN MY BODY most of the time. (Scratch that-- some of the time.) I'm taking a multivitamin. I'm drinking milk and protein shakes. I'm drinking my weight in water. I crave protein, so I'm eating lots of chicken and eggs. I have steak once in a while for the extra iron. Oh, yes, and peanut butter. I'm just trying to be conscious of my food choices. I'm still having way too many french fries and fried foods in general and possibly too much chocolate, but I'm trying.

So, maybe more than innovative, these training ideas are common sense. It just took me a while to get here. My momma always said I was better at book learnin' than common sense. Perhaps she was right....