3 down 15 to go

In preparation for the Oct 10 Mohawk-Hudson Marathon, Kathleen is following the venerable Hal Higdon's Intermediate II training schedule.  So far, so good.  The fairly easy first three weeks are done with.  Nothing too challenging yet, although last Saturday's 6 mile pace run (9:10 average pace per mile) was pretty trying at 80+F.  We started too late (well after 0800A) - and paid the price.

It is going to get a lot more difficult:  by week 8 the Sunday long run will be up to 17 mile and the first 20-miler is scheduled for week 11.  There will be 3 X 20-milers in total and a nice 2-week taper.  Too soon to start thinking about that though!  For now, we will concentrate on staying healthy, keeping the long run pace at just under aerobic threshold so as not to tire ourselves out prematurely, and to do what we can to run under the extreme conditions of summer along the Gulf Coast.

With regularly daily stretching and knee rehab exercises, I've managed to keep the left knee injury under control.  There is still a bit of discomfort every now and then but I think I am winning the battle.  It has definitely helped to reduce mileage this month and to also be running just 5 instead of 6 days a week.

My Crossfit program has been coming along very nicely.  It takes a while to learn and get used to the various exercises making up the daily WOD - never a dull moment.  Amongst others last week I did burpees, dead lifts, push presses, rope jumping, sit ups, kettleball swings, kettleball 'sumo lifts', push ups of course, walking lunges, and box jumps (not as difficult as I thought it might be!).


Yesterday afternoon a group of us (Striders) went bowling at the 300 Bowling Alley on Bunker Hill.  Kathleen - who hasn't bowled in many years - got the highest score of the day, a very respectable 176!  Here are some photographs of Kathleen and a few of the other participants: