I like to run.

I was perusing Twitter the other night and a friend of mine said she wanted to run a marathon before her knees gave out and was seeking people to train for one with her.

So, I shot my mouth off and said I'd do a half.  Seriously.

In reality I have been considering a half for a while.  It gives me something to train towards instead of just my 2-3 mile run a couple of times a week.  So, now I have incentive to get started.

The goal right now is tentatively the Oklahoma City Memorial Half Marathon, which is 179 days away.

I found a 'Couch to Half Marathon plan to use to train.  I figured it would be my best bet since my runs aren't usually super serious and are more sprints than endurance.

I did the first training run on Monday morning and tried to go from my intervals to straight running 3 miles.  It was not successful.  I ended up with a few walking breaks, but I've always followed the Jeff Galloway training guide so that's no surprise really.

I cross trained with some yoga this morning and will be back on the treadmill tomorrow morning.  It's a fun motivation and this schedule seems pretty easy to follow and fit in my yoga (I'll yoga and run same day) and some spin classes.

It's from Fitness Magazine.  We'll see how it goes!

Zumba, Zumba, Zumba

In my quest to get in shape and lose weight I've been trying different classes at my gym... today it was Zumba.

If you remember from my blog about Body Combat... I'm not super coordinated and have little to no rhthym. Elaine Benes dances better than I do. So of course a dancing workout would be perfect for me.

I enlisted my fellow gym rat and Body Pump enthusiast Ann and we tried our best.

The class started with a fast song and we all just mimicked the teacher... there isn't a lot of actual instruction in the class. Lots of watching and repeating... all set to movement.

The moves were a mix of difficult and simple... with footwork combos that I often got lost on, but never fell down... that was my greatest fear. At one point Ann and I were in the middle of the same routine... and spinning in opposite directions.

The idea behind zumba is to work your muscle groups with dance moves... like pelvic circles/thrusts for your abs... boobie shimmies for your back... and lots of hip action.

So... I ended up having to hold my jiggliest bits and shimmy and shake to keep up with the moves... to prevent myself from blacking my eye with my tit. That would not be a fun story to tell. "How'd you get that black eye? I was dancing and my boob whacked me."

We hoofed it through a couple of songs and looked up to realize we'd only been in class for about 15 minutes... and I knew I was in for it.

Basically you never stop moving for the class, it goes from song to song and you just follow along in different dancing genres... from salsa, to african, to hip hop. I got to suck in so many different genres it was highly productive.

But I really felt the workout, my legs were wobbly, I sucked my abs in tight the whole hour and sweated like a whore in church. So I'd say it was a good workout.

Mems suggested if I take the class enough I'll develop some rhthym. I just laughed.