You know what they say.....1st week is the hardest.
So what did I do?
I felt like a rooster.....waking up by dawn (a lot earlier than usual for me) to make sure I get my training done, about 5-6AM depending on the plans. I figured if I waited for after work I would never get it done.
BTW, if I follow the training schedule I will be exercising 5 days a week, only two days off (Fri & Sun) all the way up to Marathon week in Jan. Wow, this is a bigger committment than I thought! 
I know that this is for a great cause so I need to focus on that and besides I will be healthier and fit, right?
Here's a little taste of what my schedule looks like. It will remain the same, except for the time, distance, and intensity which will gradually increase with time.
Mon 8/4/08: Cross train (weight lifting @ home)
Tues 8/5/08: Run for 20 min (after riding in my car afterwards it turned out that I did about 1.7 miles. huh? I couldn't believe that, I did pretty good, only about 11 more miles to go!) 
Wed 8/6/08: Cross train (aerobics/dance workout + stairmaster)
Thurs 8/7/08: Run for 20 min (1.7 miles)
Fri 8/8/08: Day off! :-)
Sat 8/9/08: Run/walk 30 minutes, not sure about the distance, but I made it over the brigde! Check it out!
Sun 8/10/08: Day off! :-)
This is our coach Diane...she told us "if it is raining, please do not call us early in the morning to find out if we are meeting or not, just show up, we will run in the rain." Tough, huh? This is no joke! LOL
ok, well you can tell this was after our run....fake smile and all. :-) 
This is Chuck from Runner's Depot. He gave us a clinic on sports equipment including shoes, running socks, gels, goos, and all this stuff I did not know about. It was quite interesting!
"It's all about the shoes!" Here's some education for you, just like tires have some sort of mileage lifetime on them, so do sneakers. Generally, sneakers have a 300-400 miles lifetime depending on your weight, the lighter you are, the longer you may fall on the range. Obviously as you put mileage on them, the cushion gets worn, so to prevent injuries you should buy a new pair and retire the old. It makes total sense, but I did not know that.....cool, huh? Come on....give me a break, I'm a chic, I buy new ones when the ones I have either look ugly or don't fit right! I'm not into fitness, so education goes a long way here! Well, it's too bad I don't have a built in odometer to measure the mileage going forward...LOL
"THOUGHTS ON THE RUN"
Why do we wait until something unfortunate happens to us or loved ones for us to put things into perspective? We discover how the small things are really small and don't matter. But we need to remember this always....That's why we have to wake up every morning and live life to its fullest - give it your best shot! LIVE, LOVE, LAUGH
