I’m writing a weekend update when this weekend first starts rather than finishes. Do you know why? Because I already did my long run of the week for this marathon training! Coach Erin and I moved my long run day to Fridays and I already wrapped up most of my runs for the week. I love this – it has really freed up my weekend more.

Core and strength training

I’m not going to be immobile during the 2 days of each weekend, however. Saturdays are my flex day which means I need to do some core and strength training, good long walks, cross-train, or if I feel like it, a couple light easy miles of running. I decided I’m going to be using Saturdays for solid core and strength work and will also start adding that into my week somewhere as well. The goal for both is at least 2 times a week, possibly 3 times, up to 30 min each time.

Today’s core and strength training focus is going to be on the following exercises:

traditional pushups
squats
crunches
leg pushaways

We tried to adopt a kitty

In other unrelated news, we tried to adopt a young 8 month old kitty into our household this past week. Our Schnoodle Agnes said “NO”. Sadly, we have learned our sweet 5 year old poodle-schnauzer mix will not do well with a kitty and most likely integration would not be easy over the long run. Out of concern for the kitty’s safety, we had to bring her back. My main concern is that if integration were able to actually work, it would take too long and by then the cat might be too emotionally traumatized.

We love animals but we also love to travel so when we take on a pet, a lot of consideration is given to our lifestyle. Fortunately, my own parents live very close and always watch our Agnes when we are gone. My parents are getting older, however, so I do have to take into account that I will not have that convenience forever. Our daughter is in first grade this year so ideally, if we are able to bring in a new pet, this would be the time to do so. That would give her 12 years with another pet, timed with high school graduation. The pet would maybe live another couple of years at the most, and then we’d be becoming empty nesters and re-evaluate how our lifestyle would then be. See … timing is sometimes very important!

I’m keeping my eye out on a pet rescue group nearby and maybe the right little furry friend will surface, one who will be a good match for us. I’d like to do a rescue so we’ll see how this goes. Both my husband and I have had so many pets in our lifetimes and we would love to rescue them all, but we are also now very experienced with animals and know a good match has to be made all-around to keep a harmonious household.

Are you currently in marathon training? How is it going?