Burn addiction

After a brief encounter with an 80-degree summer, spring is here.

And that means it's really race time.

With one half marathon under my belt for 2012, I'm definitely ready for more.  That's good because there are two coming up really fast -- the Door County Half Marathon and the Cellcom Green Bay Half Marathon. Both are in May and, thankfully, they're not on back-to-back weekends this year.

So that means this month is the meat of the training season. You know, when the weekend long runs are either in double-digits (for us half marathoners) or pretty darn close to it?

No more 'See you in an hour!' At least in our house, there's some serious planning and down right negotiations that go along with the thick part of the training schedule. Between errands, work and that pesky 4-year-old who needs like protection and stuff, it's tricky.

(A suddenly still moment in the not-so-still life of Nolan Bailey.)

 
But it's doable. All of this doable, it's just a question of doing it.

And that's where I've been stuck for the past week -- doing the bare minimum to get through those weekday workouts, which -- for me -- are the HARDEST part of this training thing. The training plan I use calls for three runs each week of varying intensity and distance with cross-training mixed in there to build muscle.

But, for me at least, the cardio part is just easier -- get on a treadmill, or the bike, or the rower, or the Nordic Track and just go. No counting, no switching sides, no weights.

And there's the burn. The burn of waaaaay more calories than any amount of cross-training could provide. I think, "Wait, I can wake up at 6:10 a.m. and still burn what I would have if I woke up a half hour earlier doing a different exercise?!"

I'll admit it: I am a total cardio addict. I am completely at the mercy of those digital counters that tell me I burned 420 calories in a 3.1-mile run. (And, yes, I know they're not accurate.) 

(This week's exercise log that showed 20 miles run and zero minutes doing cross-training.)

I just can't get enough. So I keep coming back. Again. And again. And again.