Marathon Training Week 12

I can't believe I finished week 12 already. This week flew by. These runs are becoming second nature, and it's almost to the point where I just think of them as routine and not a chore. Tim asked me if I'm getting tired of doing them, and I responded, honestly, that I'm not. I'm actually really enjoying it! Although some of the long runs are of course tasking and mentally difficult, the runs during the week are great stress relievers and help me feel like me at the end of the day, if that makes any sense.

This is a snapshot of my week, although it doesn't include everything. The way DailyMile displays things, only miles are counted, so if I run and do something else on the same day, it doesn't look like anything more than the run. Here are the workouts I did.

It was Thursday that I added some cross training into the mix, which is something I need to do more of. I also have undecided for today because I'm leaving for a cookie swap in a little bit and will probably ride the bike or do yoga when I get back. I'll also definitely do the Workout of the Week for the Holiday Bootie Buster Challenge I'm doing to earn those extra points. Plus, after a few cookies I'm sure I'll be consuming, I don't want to just have a rest day. The 8 miler was what running dreams are made of. It felt great and the pace was wonderful. It definitely wasn't an easy run, but I kept pushing it and was very pleased with this tempo for an 8 miler.  The second five miles run of the week was pretty craptastic on the treadmill. I was running with an incline of 1 on speed 6.0 and accidentally hit the stop button before I could tell how far I'd gone. I was watching my iPad so it was covering the distance, but the last I had checked it had been about halfway. That's so frustrating! I did another 2.5 to make sure that I hit 5, varied the speeds a little, but ultimately don't know really how far or slowly. My Elf4Health Challenge for Wednesday had been to try a new workout. Because of the 8 miler, I was pretty spent and didn't have another workout in me, even though I had planned on it. Instead, I shifted it to Thursday. I had purchased the TurboFire DVDs a few weeks ago when they were on sale, but I hadn't had a chance to give them a shot yet. This really was the perfect excuse and opportunity.

I thought I would do a little review of my first experience, as I'm sure my thoughts and opinions will change over time as I go. Two things should be noted before reading this review: I'm not participating in the actual prescribed TurboFire program, as I'm in the middle of marathon training; also, this was my first time trying it. I knew very little about it ahead of time, and the only interaction I have had with workouts at all related were the Les Mills BodyCombat classes I used to take before my gym got bought out and the new gym decided they wanted to take away everything that made their members happy. 

This is a review of the Fire 30 DVD of the program, as that's the one I was told to start with.

Positives:

+The workout is a lot of fun, and the time definitely passes quickly.

+The instructor isn't annoying at all. In fact, she's pretty motivational the whole time. She's talking to the class that's doing the workout in the video with her, and she doesn't add phrases intermittently like "...and you at home!" When she says, "you're doing a great job!" it feels authentic because there are actually 15 or so people there that she's talking to doing the workout.

+There are 2 or 3 fire drills on this DVD, which is the HIIT that TurboFire is known for. They're great, and your heart rate definitely skyrockets. When you start, you don't feel like it's going to be that difficult, but somehow that one minute fire drill seems like it lasts for 2-3 minutes. 

+There is a cool down period included in the DVD, so you know you're bringing your heart rate down safely.

+There is someone behind her that is doing the exercises in a "low impact" way. Since I don't want to hurt myself with some of the kicks and jumps, I did a bit of it in low impact mode.

Negatives:

-For my taste, there is way too much camera angling. I got frustrated a couple of times when I was trying to learn some of the exercise patterns and the camera kept changing what they were showing. I couldn't see Shalene or the workouts because of the way that it was displayed.

-There are some parts where you need to do the DVD three or four times to get the pattern of exercises down. She moves through them quickly, which is great, but as a newbie I did my best to follow along and keep moving, even when I knew I wasn't doing the right punch or kick. I remember it being like this when I first started combat, and that definitely gets better with time.

-The time is on the screen in the bottom left, so I did feel like I was sometimes watching it and counting down. I think if it wasn't there I wouldn't be doing that. I know, though, that this is something that is on all of the screens for all of the Beachbody programs, so I don't think that's going to be changing anytime soon.

I'll definitely be doing more DVDs and letting you know what I think. I'll also update my opinion on Fire 30 as I do it a few more times.

For this week, here is what the plan calls for:

Already I can tell you I'll be doing 20 on Sunday. I'm running a half and will be doing 7 additionally to hit that 20 miler. I want to get in two 20's before the race, and there is only one prescribed 20 miler on my plan. This 19 will become the other 20!

I can't believe how quickly time is flying! January 13th will be here before I know it!

Linkup your workouts, race recaps, or runs for the week below!