I can barely walk....

8 days left until the marathon and I can barely walk. I was not in a horrific accident or had taken a nasty fall...instead I went to the gym to meet with a personal trainer. Sounds innocent, right?....Bad move! I just joined a new gym close to where I live, and was excited about the new facilities and all of the services they offer. Someone from the personal training department called me up on Thursday night to see if I would like to have a free session with one of their trainers, and also to get some instruction and familiarity with the gym. Since I took Thursday and Friday off last week from work to get ready for my big trip coming up, I decided that Friday morning would be a perfect time to meet with a trainer. I first had to sit down with him and talk to him about my fitness goals and capabilities, and whether I had ever had a personal trainer before. I told him that I really didn't think that I was a good candidate for a personal trainer since I am training for a marathon, work out 6 days a week, and pretty much know the ends and outs of most gym equipment. Also, my view of personal trainers was that they were more for people that lacked much willpower and needed the extra push to even get to the gym for their workout. Well, I think he thought that it was his goal to prove me wrong! We had an INTENSE workout with me doing lots of isometric exercises, squats with jumps in between them, wall lean pose, push-ups, chin-ups, various situps, and he even had me frog leap the entire length of the squash court 4 times! I walked out of the gym sore already and with a new appreciation of what my body can accomplish. I thought that I was in good shape because I can run 2o+ miles, but I have definitely been limiting my muscles on their fullest potential. I want to thank the personal trainer for giving me a wakeup call that there is always room for improvement in everyone's exercise routine.

I was supposed to run 6.5 miles with my training group this morning in a route that started at Paul Brown Stadium and covered the first and last couple of miles of the marathon. Noticed I said the word "supposed". Last night I helped my sister's husband Adam move out of their apt and into their new condo. (Conveniently, Amber was out of town for work...just kidding, she feels guilty enough about all of this). This probably doesn't sound like that big of a deal, but their apt was on the 4th floor of a building downtown that does not have an elevator! Adam's dad also came over to help (glad their were two men there so I didn't have to move much heavy stuff), but it only took two trips up and down those flights of stairs before my thighs started quivering. By the 15th trip, I was really hurting. We continued to pack and move furniture between their apt, to the condo, to my apt, etc well into the night. I finally went home around 1:30 A.M, and Adam and his Dad were still packing up and moving things! Even though I can barely walk, I am glad to feel as a part of the family and love getting roped into these adventures!

So, today I took it kind of easy because I could barely walk... but it got me thinking , what if I had done something like this the day before the marathon? Would I be able to run? I decided to go out for a jog to see how I would do. My jog was pitiful. I managed to squeak out 5.6 miles before the rain started to fall. I decided that it was time to go home at that point since I was wearing a white tank top! I ran so slow and each step was painful. I decided that I have a week to get back to normal (plenty of time), before I get to run the big race. One tidbit to all of those planning on running the marathon next week...dont change your exercise routine the week before the race! We are almost there.....

Crystal