12 weeks to tighen up technologically

I have, for the first time in the last couple of years or so, actually made an excel worksheet (pretty colour-coded weeks, yeah!), and committed to a plan.  I'm still tinkering, and already I'm going to have to move stuff around because we're going to visit family this weekend, but I actually going to do more than just, oh, just run around in the forest for eons every so often.  Not dissing that because it's served me well thus far, but it's a little sloppy for a marathon that I want to get through more quickly. So I threw together something similar to the sort of thing that seemed to work well in the past--it's kind of an experiment, because I've never actually put my own plan together before, but at my level, it's basic stuff.  Mostly, 3 tougher workouts per week, tempo, speedwork, long run.  eh

I need tempo runs, including a couple that are included within longer runs, but I have to toughen up for these.  And I need some VO2max interval work, but I have to toughen up for this with some shorter faster more agreeable intervals first.  Meanwhile, I also need long road runs--this is my most fundamental weakness.  I never ever dreamed that little old urban me would wind up living pretty much in a forest, but, yep, life's funny like that. But now I have to get out of the forest.

And I also have to get out of the tank, at least a little bit.  Usually, considering my weight seems frivolous, more form than function, and I'm more keen on function...but this is actually a functional consideration.   Roads are hard.  Well, so are trails, but it's like they require a chainsaw and a pickaxe and maybe some TNT, rather than a single scalpel.  Roads are much more repetitive, the impact is harder, and stress becomes more concentrated.  Plus, I don't really need to eat all this junk food I've been eating.  That was fine before because I had the ultras, the weightlifting, plus winter's a good time to bulk up, etc, etc, etc, but now I should lighten my load by a few pounds.  It won't be extreme, just dropping my BMI of 22.ish to 20.ish.  Gluten issues have pushed it further downwards in the past, but I don't want to get that low (17.5-ish) because that wasn't healthy.  However, past experience has shown that 19.5-20.5 is good for cruising. 

So, upon my husband's recommendation, I downloaded myfitnesspal on my phone.  This app is quicker to use than the applications I've used in the past.  It remembers and prompts past meal items and scans barcodes and inputs that info automatically--the only hiccup was with some Japanese candy, and I was able to enter its nutritional info manually.  It also tracks calories burned.  So, it makes things really quick for someone like me who tends to eat the same things over and over again.  Hopefully not so much popcorn and chips now.

And I'm going to dig out the Garmin.  Yep, we are going back into space.

I have 12 weeks to turn into a machine.  Kicked things off with a modest 35 minute trail jog, and maybe a short TM run in the evening to loosen up.

Edit: short evening jog on the TM because myfitnesspal told me I ate one too many ribs.