Beverly says... Okay so now what?

Well we have agreed to do this thing, check. Accountability to each other and the world about our training, check. So now what?

I have a couple of ideas about my accountability. I think I will post my "training" schedule on here every Sunday and then at the end of the week we can see how I did and if I stuck to it.

Where to start... well I am not completely starting from scratch because I am moderately active. That does not mean that I am fit and thin. I am not. I will not tell you how overweight I am, this is not a weight loss blog but I am trying to lose weight. I have heard that training for a marathon is no weight loss plan and I believe it. So, I will continue my low calorie menu plan and my regular exercise plan and will just add the half-marathon training on top of it all. Worse thing that could happen is I get fitter, stronger, and thinner. Darn. But, I repeat, this is not a weight loss plan. I don't expect that to happen from this training alone.

My beginning platform: I am currently logging in about 350-400 minutes of exercise a week. I go to the gym and my "go-to exercises" are the elliptical machine (30-45 minutes depending on the crowd) followed by 30 minutes on the treadmill or Arc trainer. I aspire to do 60 minutes of cardio 5 times a week. I probably only do 4 times a week. I try to do squats, lunges, shoulders, biceps, chest, triceps, and sit-ups at least twice a week. I want to do this more but I have only been doing this for 3 months so it was a starting point. I also take several group exercise classes: Zumba (it deserves it's own post), Pilates (love!), and have and will occasionally take Urban Rebounding (the most evil class of all time), Yoga (otherwise known as leaving me alone with my mind - never a good idea), and African Dance class (a little too unstructured for my taste). I want to start taking Spin classes but I am afraid.

In addition to the gym I will occasionally go Swing dancing with a friend. I am signing up for Tap dance class in a few weeks, and I walk everywhere. I walk .7 of a mile each way from my home to the train stop plus I work on a large campus where I have .5 mile walks from my office to meetings each way. The walk home from the gym is 1.1 miles. I average about 3 miles a day. At work I am on a "get fit" team. We compete with other teams by logging in exercise minutes. There are minimum requirements each week and different goals to meet each week. Several of the group members will walk during the work day to ensure that we are getting our minutes in. We walk about 40 minutes and do that 2-3 times a week. The most surprising thing about this walk is it is pretty aggressive and I burn about 350-400 calories which is better than the treadmill.

My point is that while I am no athlete I also don't have to start from scratch. That being said, I am no runner. Heck, I am no jogger. This will be a huge challenge for me.