Preparing for the Challenge

When it comes to preparing or planning ahead, I'm really terrible. For every long-term project that I've ever done in school, it was always a last minute rush to finish the job. When it comes to preparing for a vacation or trip, I tend to wait until the last minute to pack, usually leaving something behind in the process. Now I'm hard at work preparing for another type of challenge: a 13.1 mile "half marathon" through Anaheim, California and Disneyland!

I've always considered myself to be a decent runner. Being in the Navy, I have to run 1.5 miles within a certain time period for our Physical Fitness Assessments every six months. It is funny to hear people around me freak out when it comes to doing that short run because they are afraid to fail. Even without regular exercise, I can finish the run in about eleven minutes flat. I know that with practice I can do that run even faster! I have just been too lazy. I had never considered the notion of entering a marathon style run before because I haven't had the initiative to accomplish such a feat. Running for that distance kind of scares me! But, being able to achieve something like this shows just how fit I am. The steps it'll take to accomplish that goal, if continued afterword, will maintain my health and ensure a longer life.

I was asked to join the Disneyland half marathon by Juri's dad. Ever since he was told that he has a cholesterol problem, he has changed his eating habits and now regularly runs. Now that I am getting older (I turned 29 years old today), I realized that my health is much more important to me than ever before. So I figured, what the hell, and said yes. It was about two months ago that I was asked and I have done nothing to prepare for this marathon up until four days ago. That was my procrastination, obviously. Sure I ran some during the deployment I just got back from. I couldn't maintain a regular workout routine though because I was always busy with various work and repairs. But, now that I am home and back to a normal routine with work, I came up with a regular workout regimen. I have duty every four days, where I am stuck on the ship for a full work day. Because of my work scheduleon those duty days, I have decided to make that day a rest day to recover from my workout routine. On the days in between duty days, I will do my workout as follows. On the first day, I will do a 1.5 mile run for speed. I will start at 7 mph with a sprint at the end and hope to be running at 8 mph when I near the end of my preparation for the marathon. I will also do WiiFit strength training and balance games on that day. The second day will be strength training. I will do sets of pushups and crunches, alternating between the two. Right now, I'm doing ten pushups and thirty crunches per set. I hope to increase that amount as well as I go. I will also perform some yoga and strength training sets on WiiFit to add more variety and fun to my workout while working on my balance, posture, and breathing skills. The third day will consist of a long distance run, which I'm currently working on extending my time as I start this routine. I run at 6 mph constantly for thirty minutes and I hope to increase that time to forty-five minutes and then an hour. I will increase that time when I am ready to do so. In order to ensure that I follow through with this plan, I have made a workout log in Excel to track my progress.

So, that is my plan for the Disneyland half marathon! I hope that this adventure in physical health and fitness does more for me than just improve my overall health. I would like to use this planning example in other areas of my life to avoid future procrastination problems. A good plan will generally avoid future disasters. I will definitely use this blog to write out other futures plans in order to help cement these plans into being.