The aforementioned "horny friends" are, of course, rhinoceros - the animals with which I spend most of my days.

I had a great first week.  I hit all my workout goals.  On day two, I biked at my work gym after my shift.  The next day I ran the World Trail at the USF campus and I ran with the pitbulls, Stella and Sherman, again on Thursday.  I hit the elliptical at the gym on Friday after work, and today, I ran 5.3 miles after taking care of my cats and Kristin's dogs.  Overall, a busy week - but it's only going to get busier.  I will post summaries of each week's workouts as I go - this week's is below.  The second row (in black) is the prescribed workout; the third row is what I actually did (in green); and the bottom row is the mileage (when applicable)

So, after work today I planned on driving home and walking the dogs - Stella (below left) and Sherman (below right), that is.  Well, I had made a large, print-out of my marathon training schedule at work today and figured I would write the dates to correspond with the workouts on it.  Luckily, I did...because I found out that TODAY was the first day of my marathon training!

I had been chugging along since my last race on Labor Day weekend, thinking 'December 1st...December 1st.'  To figure out when I needed to start training for my marathon, I had counted out 19 weeks back from April 13, 2014 - the day of the London Marathon - and got December 1st.  I miscalculated.  December 1st is in Week 1...but it is the last day!  A la Rick Perry...oops.

Like I said, I caught it before I headed out of the house, so a "walk" with the dogs became my latest step in my marathon quest, i.e. a 40 minute run.  I ran one of my usual routes near my friend's house - I am dog-sitting for her.  It is a 2 mile loop that I ran twice and to which I added an extra little doohickey (see above).  Technically, it was 4.09 miles and I ran it in 43 minutes, but that's including a pit stop for Stella to take care of some paperwork, which I dutifully picked up (I do not like dog owners that do not clean up after their dog!).  I did make her carry it back to the house on her collar.  I have my limits.

Hopefully, someone is reading this and if you are, welcome!  This is where I track my training progress for the 2014 London Marathon.  I am 16% of the way to my fundraising goal after only five donations.  Those people rock!  Please keep checking back here for updates and if you are feeling generous, donate to rhino conservation.  I will hopefully have t-shirts available here soon.

If not, it at least gives the illusion of being harder.  There is a small lake near his house and we run laps around it.  This is another refreshing aspect that reminds me of high school track - the laps, that is...not the small lake.  It does not look refreshing.

On Wednesday, I ran with my two friends with whom I ran the Disney Princess Half Marathon in February.  We ran-walked 8 miles, which involved Victoria keeping the pace - 1 minute running , 4 minutes walking.  It was a different workout for me - I usually just run - and it was pretty challenging in terms of my body not being used to that kind of movement.  Aerobically, I was in great shape.  My other running friend, Morgan,  is running a marathon in about a week, so this method is how she is tackling the second half.  She plans to run the first half.  At our pace, with this method, I would finish a marathon in 6 hours, which isn't bad considering my tertiary goal for London is under 5 hours - the first two goals being finish, and have fun.

Yesterday was my first day of dog-sitting for a friend and co-worker.  When I got to her house, I leashed up Sherman and Stella - her two pitbulls - and headed out.  This was my second run with Stella and Sherman.  She just adopted Stella from a rescue a few months ago, so I had taken her out for a test run by herself that month.  I run with a leash in each hand, with one dog on each side.  I ran past a school where kids were walking around a track and the dogs got lots of catcalls.  Sherman especially always gets the compliments.  Overall, a nice, diverse week of running.

5.4 miles in 53:34

What a beautiful morning!  The high today is supposed to be 66 degrees!  I headed out at about 8 am and it was just under 60 degrees.  There was a definite chill in the air and I was glad to start running and warm up a bit.  I haven't run at this time in a while - everyone was driving to work.  In case you didn't remember, I run around an industrial park.  For me, the first mile is always the hardest.  My body is asleep and needs to adjust to "running mode."  I imagine it saying, "Oh yeah, this is what you want me to do?  Okay, give me a few minutes."  I felt pretty good after about 8/10 of a mile and pushed through the last mile.
I haven't been running regularly since September, but my first week of marathon training (the first week of December) has me running about 17 miles, so I've been trying to run more.  I've run about eight times in the last three weeks.  Not bad...but not great either.  I think it's because I know once I start training, it will be pretty grueling and so I'm giving myself a slight break.  The three months before my last race were pretty busy with training and life in general, and with the holidays coming up, it won't be any easier.  Wish me luck!