TOTR: Marathon Training Update

Happy Tuesday! Since it's Tuesday's on the Run and there's no specific topic for  today, I figured it would be the PERFECT opportunity to update you guys on how my marathon training is going.

I think when I originally signed up to run Richmond, I thought that I'd start training, it would go fairly easy, I'd run the race, potentially do really well, and then continue running marathons from now until forever.

Talk about being naive last November. ;)

So far marathon training has been... interesting. Not quite what I expected but then again, I've never trained like this before. I'm use to things coming fairly easy to me and this has been probably one of the hardest things I've done up to this point in my life.

Physically, I'm having no issues. (KNOCK ON WOOD!) I think I do enough cross training and lifting to help keep my body strong enough to withstand the mileage.

For me, preparing my mental game has been the hardest part. Let's be honest--26.2 miles is a long freakin' way ya'll. ha. I'm still trying to convince myself that I'm capable of doing it in the first place. And I'll be honest, I can only keep my brain occupied on a run for so long. When I get deep into a long run, I get bored. And from that point forward, it takes everything I have to keep going.

And of course there's the whole weight gain issue that looms in the back of my mind as well. I try to stay away from the scale as much as possible but I know I've put on a few pounds since starting. It's not something I'm SUPER concerned but it's still one of those mental things that starts eating away at you after a while (no pun intended...;)). I've been making conscious efforts to make better choices on how I'm fueling up before and after runs so I think that's helping. I know my body needs fuel and I know that in order to run 26.2 miles, it needs to be as strong as possible.

So, basically what I'm saying is... I now understand why people say that it's impossible to train for a marathon and not have it change you.

It's the absolute most grueling, down and dirty work I've ever done.

One day I'll have the world's GREATEST run and the next I can barely make it a mile without cursing. The highs are great and the lows suck just as worse. I went into training thinking it would be a piece of cake and now all I want to eat is cake.... ALL. THE. TIME. :)

I feel like this has been an overly negative marathon training post but I swear--I really am excited to run Richmond in LESS THAN 2 MONTHS. Each time I reach a new PDR, I can't help but be so incredibly proud of myself for pushing through. And I can't help but be grateful to my body for allowing me to do something so incredibly crazy.

Last weekend when I ran 18 miles, as tired as I was and as many times as I wished it was over, I couldn't help but smile and think back to when running 1 mile seemed like a marathon to me and now here I am, on the doorstep of my first. This whole "running thing" that started out as a way to lose weight has morphed into something I never thought imaginable and every mile that my feet run, I'm thankful that I have the ability to do so.

I'm not sure what November 14th will bring. I'm not sure what will happen when I hit the wall, not sure how my body will react, not sure that I'll finish... but I guarantee you that I'll be fighting every step of the way.

Have a wonderful day!

Sarah