Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes

The "Daily Mission" question on Daily Mile this morning was this: "Cardio. Strength. Flexibility. What is your weakest link?" Very timely, because on my run this morning (and before I saw the question), I thought about my current training plan, and what I was missing.

Some quick background: when I was serving in the Navy back in the late 80's, I would strength-train regularly, to the point where at my peak I was bench-pressing 275 lbs. and squatting close to 400. My downfall came when I failed the Physical Readiness Test in late 1987 - I couldn't complete the 1.5 mile run in 18 minutes. I look back on that and think how bad my cardio was that I couldn't sustain a 12 minute pace. But I refused to run.

Fast-forward to 2012, and a complete 180-degree turnaround: I am addicted to running, and I couldn't care less about strength training. That's detrimental to my overall training, and the area in which I need to drastically improve.

So after a lot of thought this morning, I have decided to alter my training schedule and to supplement my running beginning this Monday with 2 mornings of strength and core training. I have 10 weeks until the official start of training for the Marine Corps Marathon. I have lost 15 pounds since my run streak started on Thanksgiving Day 2011, and I want to tone that up. And I have another 10-15 pounds to go to where I want to be, weight-wise on October 28th. Running alone isn't going to do that.

For the time being, my run streak will continue; I'll warm up before my strength/core with a mile on the treadmill. But once MCM training begins, there will be complete rest days from running.

And this blog serves as my motivation; if I have it in writing, I'll be less likely to wander off - and I'm hoping my DM friends hold me to it.

Strange fascination, fascinating me/
Changes are taking the pace I'm going through

And now, Mr. David Jones:

Rain, Rain, Go Away

I'm a wimp when it comes to running in adverse weather conditions, I admit it. It's been raining like crazy here in Northern Virginia this week, and my mileage is taking a slight hit.

My normal run days are Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, and Sunday. This past Tuesday, I woke up, got dressed for my run, and opened the front door to a downpour. So I retreated to the basement and did 30 minutes on the stairclimber. Hey, cross-training is good, right? The day eventually cleared up, and I did my scheduled 4 miler later that evening. Not a bad cardio day, looking back.

Wednesday was my off day, and had I thought about it beforehand, i could have put in some miles last night after putting my son to bed. And I should have - the deluge began at midnight, and is still coming down as I write this. Expectations are that we will get close to 5 inches of rain when it finally blows out of here.

So this morning, rather than try and run in the storm, I again hit the stairclimber for a half hour. Not my favorite form of exercise, but it does the job in a pinch. I'll hopefully be able to get out tomorrow morning, and if I do, I'm probably going to do about 6 easy to moderate miles just to get back on track. This weekend is supposed to be clear and cool, perfect for doing a 9-miler on Sunday.

The whole positive to this is that when the rain subsides, it will be gone. Had this been winter, we'd be looking at upwards of 4 feet of snow. And then I'd really be miserable.