I finished stage one while I was home in Georgia helping out a friend and visiting family. I was planning to write my post the week of July 4th which was my rest week between one and two. I never got around to it though because on July 2nd, as my parents were leaving North Georgia where we had been for a few days, the tailgate of my dad's truck fell open and my suitcase, containing all of my clothes for the two week trip, fell out and was swiped before he could stop and grab it. I was in my car on the way to Atlanta on a different road. My parents were taking my stuff with them so that I would not have a truck full of luggage to tempt thieves. Turns out some one is more likely to steal your suitcase on mountain roads in North Georgia. I was almost a week away from returning home so I had to start replacing clothes quickly, which included four of my beloved SparkleSkirt running skirts. Because of all this craziness, I never got around to writing my post. Now I am back with the hubby and pups and two weeks into stage two which means I am half way done with it.
Stage one was really great and a learning experience. I learned how to do lots of exercises I had heard of but never attempted. I learned that eating protein while weightlifting is VERY important. Days when I did my workouts but did not have enough protein, I would wake up the next day completely exhausted because my body did not have what it needed to rebuild my muscle. Stage one is six weeks long. It consists of two workouts that are alternated three times a week. You do each workout 8 times each and increase the difficulty every two weeks. The last week is filled in with two special workouts that include the same exercises you have been doing but you drop back to the original weight used and complete as many reps as possible to see how you have improved.
I really enjoyed the stage as a whole even though I did prefer one workout over the other. I had originally hoped to throw a few runs in there but I never was really consistent with that part. Instead I focused on my strength and developing a good base for the rest of the program. After the craziness that went on during my rest week, I had a hard time really getting motivated and getting started on Stage two. I also ended up leaving Georgia a day later than I had planned so that interfered with my MWF workout plan.
I finally got settled back in here and adjusted my calendar a little to allow me an extra day to get started but not throw off every stage after this one. One of the good things is that you don't have to take a rest week after each of these next few stages because they are much shorter, only 4 weeks. The break between 2 and 3 will be just a little shorter than the breaks between 3, 4 and 5. I must admit though, I am not loving the workouts in stage two. I have to start running this week to do the full training program for Avengers and this stage is VERY leg intensive. As part of the B workout, you are supposed to finish with 15 minutes of interval training, which would be fine but my legs are burnt out by the time I get done so doing a higher intensity interval run is tough. It got a little easier this week but it is still a tough set of workouts.
Tomorrow night will be my first training run for Avengers. It's just 3 miles but it will be my first real run in a while. I'm swapping my run and workout night so that I can take advantage of the awesome weather we are supposed to have tomorrow before it starts to warm back up this weekend. I'm still figuring out how all of this is going to work. I am definitely not going to over do it on my long training runs. They will be slow and steady to get the miles in. I am hoping the strength training will help with my speed even when I am not going fast in my running. I'm also trying to refocus on my eating because I have let that slide for way to long. I need to clean it up again and start focusing on good lean protein on my lifting days and smart carb choices for my long training runs without over doing it.
Mac and I are planning an anniversary trip to Disney this fall. I remember where I was when I went last year and I am hoping by some miracle, maybe I get get back there by the time we go this year. I hate that I have to do all that work again but I am also not surprised because some of how I got there was the wrong way and I am really trying to do it right this time. Either way, it will be nice celebrating my anniversary at California Grill with my husband this year instead of from afar.
