TOPIC: Training for the LA Marathon

Ran twice this weekend.  Both times a little more than 4 miles.  Saturday's run was a good workout.  I ran to a neighborhood park that had a  bunch of exercise stations and I did a circuit (push-ups here, run to next and do chin-ups or stretches or whatever).  Definitely good training for my next mud run!<br />

Are exercise stations common in parks out there?<br /><br />Kim

No, not really.  This park even has a walking/jogging path to run on between the stations.

I'd just never heard of that in a park.  It's nice that it's so close to you.<br /><br />Kim

We used to have a park like that in Edmonton. There was a path running through it called The Fitness Trail. You could follow it between stations, and do chin-ups, push-us, (low) balance beams, log lifts, etc. There were signs at each station explaining how to do the exercises and the health benefits of each. However, after a decade, most of the signs were vandalized, the logs burnt, the chin-up bars missing, etc. They took down the remaining signs, and turned the trail into a normal bike path instead. : (

So Saturday I did the 4 mile run with the exercise stations again, but I will need to change a couple of the exercises.  Jen noticed I had bruises on my back in a grid pattern - the stations for sit-ups and crunches have metal benches - When I did the exercises I bruised my back!  Next time I'll do those exercises on the grass!<br />

Yesterday my team did a 5 mile run.  I was running with the fast group, and we went out really fast! We were running at maybe 10K pace, about 7:45 miles!  Way faster than we'd run for our upcoming (half)marathons!  Felt pretty good to push the pace, though.

if you are not careful, you are going to be "a lean mean dragon killing machine".  =D

Yeah - I'll take him standing on one foot! (I can cast spells on one foot!)

Still running while here in MA dealing with the aftereffects of my Dad's death.  It's really helped me keep my stuff together.

5 miles today, pretty good pace.  Going to do a 5K with my TNT team on Sunday.

Ran a 5K yesterday in Redondo Beach for the 4th.  Goal was to break 24:00 minutes, which would be better than 8 minutes per mile.  I was worried after the first mile, b/c the gun time was 8:13 - the crowd was hard to run through.  After getting some room to run, though, I was able to speed up, and finished in 22:50 (7:22/mile)!  I finished 226th out of 1996, 17th out of 101 in my age group!  I'm pretty happy with that!