Thank you to all our donors so far!

As of yesterday, our awesome friends and family have helped us raise $500 so far! We are 10% of the way there in only a few days!

We are very blessed, and we yet we still have a good ways to go to reach our goal of raising $5,000 for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. If others are able to support our training we would greatly appreciate it!

Happy Friday everyone!!

Update on extra workouts

So as of my last entry, I talked about adding in a few extra workouts a week to start building strength in other muscle groups. Wednesday was the first day I did this and man oh man did I have NO idea how sore I would get! Yet another reminder how doing one form of exercise such as running doesn't mean all muscles are getting in shape.

I guess this means I need to keep up the P90X workouts as my body clearly could use it! Here's to hoping I will be able to move around without pain once again soon... :)

Start of Lent

So today is Ash Wednesday - the start of Lent, and while I haven't decided yet on whether I will give something up, I have decided on trying to add something good into my weekly workout routines. Prior to starting our marathon training, Kevin and I were almost done with P90X - one of BeachBody's workout programs. Of the 90 days in the program, we did all but the last couple weeks, as that is when the running took over. While I am thoroughly enjoying the added cardio that running brings, I find myself missing some of the strength building exercises from P90X and I think that adding some of these back in to my weekly routine will benefit my marathon training. Sooo, starting with this morning my goal is to add at least 3 days a week of core and strength-building routines in addition to the running schedule. Today's workout: Legs and Back P90X workout. Rolling out of bed at 5:30am to do this was no fun, but I have to say that I am happy I did it! Amazing to realize that even though we've been running I am 'out of shape' so to speak as I haven't used some of the muscles I touched on today while doing our running. Something tells me I will be sore tomorrow!

Colds + Cake Tastings = rough training week

So the last week and a half have been rough from a training perspective: First, we had Valentine's Day last week which gave Kevin and I an excuse to not run for a day and enjoy a good date night in (tri-tip, yummy vino, beautiful roses, chocolate covered strawberries...you get the picture). Second, Kevin got a cold last week that was no fun, and ended up with him in bed the moment he got home from work last Wednesday. Oh yea, and I was right there with him - no, not because of a cold - but because my lunch that day didn't sit well in my tummy...ugh. Finally, Thursday came around providing me (Liz) with an opportunity to get back on the treadmill as my tummy had settled down (yes, I did in fact say 'tummy'). Poor Kevin was still nursing his cold though. Friday - hooray! Kevin was starting to come around, but the opportunity to work out was missed as we hopped in the car right after work, with Kevin's mom Maureen joining in, to head down to Paso Robles for a weekend of wedding planning and food tastings (yum!). Despite the long Friday night drive that got us in to Paso just before midnight (and of course followed by some chatting with my family upon arrival), Kevin and I managed to drag ourselves out of bed at 7am for the scheduled long run on Saturday. Even though we were not home for the team run, we still had to get out there! The nice cool, foggy morning lended itself well to a 60 minute run/walk jog. Since Kevin was still getting over the cold, we did 3/1 intervals to give his lungs a chance. Our run took us up the infamous stairs I used to do during high school soccer, and ended up at the Paso High all-weather track for a better running surface. Thankfully we did get that run in because the rest of the day was spent eating delicious food like this:

And tasting potential wedding cake from places like this:

So, it was a blast of a weekend! However, Liz woke up Sunday morning with that feeling of a cold coming on...no bueno! Between the little sleep and sick folks all around I guess I was doomed. We drove back to Santa Rosa on Sunday despite the next day being a holiday, but that gave us the opportunity to sleep in and feel better. Once again, we skipped running on Monday as we relaxed and tried to finally get over our colds - it must have done the trick though because while we both have a bit of the colds left over life is getting better! Yesterday (2/21/12), both of us got back on the treadmill for a good run. Kevin managed his 3 miles and Liz went for just under 4. Not phenomenal, but at least we are back at it again!

Fundraising Sites

When I first started this blog I did not yet know Kevin's fundraising site, so I am listing both of ours here now for reference. Please support us if you can! Kevin's Page: http://pages.teamintraining.org/sf/rnr12/kevinkarbousky Liz's Page: http://pages.teamintraining.org/sf/rnr12/egallagphe

Group Training Day #2: Feb 11, 2012

After our first long group run on Feb 4, Kevin and I were sure tired puppies! We soaked up Super Bowl Sunday by NOT running (hey, our training calendar said it was ok!) and trying to enjoy the game despite the lack of presence by the 49ers...there's always next year... The week in between group trainings consisted on plenty more treadmill sessions, icing of sore muscles, and lots of traveling between Santa Rosa and Walnut Creek for me due to a heavy work schedule. I even had to leave a great San Jose Sharks game early on Friday night in order to make it back to Santa Rosa in time for a respectable amount of sleep before Saturday's run...bummer! Once again, the alarm clock went off waaaay too early on Saturday (don't know what we are going to do once the training runs move out of Santa Rosa requiring a bit more traveling), but we dragged our tired bodies to the group meet-up spot in order to hit the Santa Rosa trails once again. This time, Kevin and I decided to change up our run/walk interval a bit to see if doing a 4 minute run followed by a 1 minute walk would be a bit easier on the bodies. We hit the trail with a slightly bigger group for this interval and this week completed a total of 55 minutes. Kevin was pushing through some sore legs and I was pushing through the general out-of-shapeness...all of which equated to a tough run, but one that we completed nonetheless. In our 55 minutes of running/walking we probably did a bit over 4 miles. It's a start for sure, but getting up to a full marathon is going to sure be difficult! Here's what was supposed to be a silly shot of us running, but the camera caught me just after my funny stride, resulting in what looks like me trying to sprint instead of a silly pose...oh well :-)

We are just starting to kick off our serious fundraising phase, so if you feel the urge to support our efforts we greatly appreciate it!

Group Training Day 1: Feb 4, 2012

Let the fun commence! Conveniently, our first group Team In Training ("TNT") run was the day before the Super Bowl...good way to burn the calories before putting them back on! For our first run, those of us crazy kids working towards a full marathon ran for 50 minutes along what we've discovered is a great creek trail in Santa Rosa. Kevin and I joined the group doing a run/walk interval consisting of 4 minutes running followed by 30 seconds of walking. We figured since we'd been doing 3-4 miles on the treadmill at home without any walk intervals that we'd be good to go for this run/walk interval. Well we made it! That being said, it sure wasn't easy. Since when did 30 seconds go so fast?! I am attributing the hardness to our pace that was a tad faster than my usual on the treadmill. Here's picture of the 4 of us doing the 4min/30sec run/walk interval as we enjoy a quick water break:

After completing that hard run at a time waaaaay too early to be awake on a Saturday morning, Kevin and I treated ourselves to a delicious breakfast at Hank's Creekside Cafe in Santa Rosa. Yummy!