Feelin? Fit

Hi, guys! I had the best night of sleep last night. Love that!

Sleeping in hotels is always so hit or miss with me. Sometimes I pass out and don’t wake up until morning, but other times, I toss and turn all night. Spending the night in an unfamiliar place seems to make my mind wonder, I guess. Anyway, I woke up around 7:00 (10:00 EST) and hit the hotel gym for a workout.

The gym in the hotel was so tiny! I actually laughed to myself when I opened the door. There was just too much equipment crammed into a small space.

I can’t even imagine more than one person working out at once!

At the gym, I did 30 minutes of strength training followed by 15 minutes on the bike and stairclimber. I had wanted to run on the treadmill, but I think it was broken. Maybe I’ll run outside tomorrow?

After the gym, I stopped by the continental breakfast in the hotel lobby for a snack. I grabbed an orange to hold me over until breakfast at Grandma’s house. I think she’s planning a big one!

I’m not sure what’s on the agenda for the rest of the day. There was a rumor going around last night that we might visit a nearby vineyard for a wine tasting. Fun!

And in other news…

Mal and I just signed up for the Ras na hEireann 5K in March. Wahoo!

My hip is almost healed, so now I want to challenge myself to improve my 5K time. I achieved my personal best (25:33) at the Ras na hEireann 5K last year, but now I want to beat it.

A number of people expressed interest in a Virtual Training Group to help support one another and keep us motivated until race day, so I set up this page to document our journey. I’ll update this page frequently with anything and everything related to my 5K training– from my daily workouts and running tips to my successes and struggles. I’d like for this page to be a place that you can write about your own training as well as share information with other readers in the comment section.

Use the Virtual Training Group webpage to:

I?m using Cool Running’s Beginner?s 5K Program to train for the race, which calls for 5 days of running. I’ll probably reduce that amount to 3 or 4 days because the bursitis in my hip is better, but still not 100%. I don?t want to overdo it with training, but I want some sort of schedule to keep me on track until race day.

I started training last week, so I’m technically on Week 2, so if you decide to use this training program, feel free to adjust the schedule as needed. And, of course, feel free to use your own training program that is tailored to your own road race. My race just happens to be in March, but any upcoming road race that you want to train for will work.

Hopefully, you will find this Virtual Training Group to be helpful– and motivating! Be sure to check out my running page, which includes all sorts of treadmill workouts, running tips, and recaps of my past races. Let me know if there is anything that you would like to see on the Virtual Training webpage. I’d like to make it an active community in the coming weeks.

Good luck with training!!! Let me know if you have any questions along the way.

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Just heard a rumor that we are having pancakes for breakfast! Yay!