Christmas in July!

This week I discovered the best part about training for a marathon... You can say to your husband/person you share finances with, "Honey, I need to go buy a new pair of hundred dollar shoes," and there's no questions asked because it's a legitimate need! Ok, so the shoes are running shoes, not a new pair of cute heels or anything, but still! Yes, this week was new running shoe week. The guideline to replace running shoes is roughly every 6 months, or every 300-500 miles (I've seen a few different ranges). I figured my current shoes have a little over 300 miles on them and they're about 7 months old, so it was time to get a new pair that could be well broken in by the marathon.

When I bought shoes back in December, I went to Dick's Sporting Goods, and one of the salespeople helped me pick out my Asics 2140's. I have really loved these shoes, and haven't had any problems with them. This time though I wanted to go to an actual running store and have someone who specializes in running help me make sure I had the right shoe. So, I took my old pair of Asics to The Running Depot in Crystal Lake and told them I was training for a marathon and needed a new pair. The woman there looked at the wear pattern on the bottom of my shoes, and said that it was right down the middle which is good. She asked if I had any problems with the shoes, I told her no, so she suggested I go with the Asics 2150's, which is just the new version of what I had. Basically, if they're working for me, why switch? She checked the fit of the size I had been wearing, and that was correct too. I just have a brand new version of what I already had, in a new color, and the assurance that those shoes are a good fit for me!

My plan was to wear my new shoes for my shorter mid-week runs for the next couple of weeks in order to break them in and continue to wear my old pair for long runs until the new ones were broken in. I did wear them on my Thursday run, but in my 6am delirium this morning before my 12 mile run, I just put on whatever running shoes were by the door and set off for the trail. It wasn't until about a mile into my run that I realized I had put on my new shoes. There was nothing I could do except hope for the best, and that's what happened! I managed to get through 12 miles with no blisters (but man are my legs sore...). I guess these really are the shoes for me!

Miles this week: 24 miles
Weeks of training finished: 19 weeks
Total miles of training: 263 miles

I'd like to give a shout out...

High five to anyone who read that title and in their head/out loud finished, "... to Seagrams gin. 'Cuz I drink it, and they payin' me for it." :) Anyway, last week was a pretty boring running week. The usual short-medium-short runs during the week, and then my long run was a "drop-back week", so it was only 7 miles. So I thought I would give some shout outs this week. There's no way that I would be running the Chicago Marathon in less than three months if it wasn't for certain people. Here we go...

First off, I need to thank the people that are the reasons I even considered running a marathon. Two of my college roommates, Jamie and Jenny, both ran the Chicago Marathon. Now, both of these lovely ladies are more athletic than myself, so even when they did it I thought, "Wow, that's amazing that they did that. I could never do that." BUT, it put the notion in my head that you don't have to be a professional runner to run a marathon. They planted the seed. Then last year a friend/ex-girlfriend of Marc's from high school (yes, you read that right) :) caught wind that I was considering training for a marathon, but was reluctant because I wasn't much of a runner. She contacted me and told me that she had run the 2009 Chicago Marathon, and prior to that had not been much of a runner either. Hearing someone who was also admittedly not a great runner at one point tell me that I could do it pushed me over the edge to go for it.

Next I need to thank everyone who has supported me in my training and fundraising efforts. The words of encouragement, blog comments, even just asking how my training is going really keeps me accountable and reminds me that if I were to suddenly give up (which I don't plan on doing), there would be a lot of people I would have to tell that I gave up, which would not be fun. So thanks for keeping me going. :) And, I have raised almost 75% of the $750 I committed to raise for Marathon for the Cure, so THANK YOU to everyone who has donated! If you haven't donated to and would like to, the link is in the upper right corner of this page!

And finally, my biggest supporter, my waterboy on a bike/amazingly supportive husband. It began when I told him I was thinking about training for a marathon and instead of saying, "What are you, crazy?" he said, "Do it!". Then once I had registered, he made the committment of riding his bike with me on long runs. Now, when this poor man made this verbal committment, I'm sure he thought to himself, "How hard can it be to go ride my bike once a week?" Little did he (or I) know at the time, that when summer rolls around, it gets very hot. This hot weather is very hard to run in. So how to we avoid said hot weather? We get up before it gets hot. Which is sometimes 6am. Even though it's Saturday. Needless to say, he has been up bright and early with me every Saturday (with only a minimal amount of grumbling) except for the two weeks when he had social events already scheduled. He's pretty much a rockstar. Love you, babe!

Miles this week: 18 miles
Weeks of training finished: 18 weeks
Total miles of training: 239 miles

Into the double digits we go!

My long runs have officially moved into the double digits! I successfully ran 10 miles this morning! I was actually really nervous for this run. 9 miles last week was rough, so I wasn't sure how I was going to do 10. Plus, my waterboy on a bike/supportive husband was gone on a camping trip, so I was going to be completely on my own. Just like the 9 mile run last week, everything was fine until about the last mile. That's when my legs started to say, "We are done. Please stop making us move."

At that 9 mile mark, I kept thinking about tired my legs were, how badly I wanted to stop, but also how I only had one more mile to go, and that really wasn't that far. I started to feel better knowing that I was almost done, but then all I could think about was how in two weeks (next week is a drop-back week), I have to run 12 miles, and that seems so far!

My mind then wandered to a section I had read in the book The Non-Runner's Marathon Guide for Women: Get Off Your Butt and On With Your Training by Dawn Dais. I love this book. The author is absolutely hilarious and wonderfully sarcastic. I highly recommend it to any woman training for a marathon, half-marathon, or just any length of race that seems impossible for you. Anyway, in one of the chapters she talks about "the moment". She talks about how great the moment when you cross the marathon finish line is, but she also talks about how you shouldn't forget about all of the little moments along the way. She says it's so easy to get caught up in worrying about how long you have to run next time, that you forget about what you are accomplishing along the way. At this point it really hit me that I was about to finish running TEN MILES. Yes, that is less than half of the actual marathon, but a year ago I could barely run two miles. I had never run ten miles in my life until today. That's a pretty amazing feeling.

I guess it's just like Miley Cyrus says, "Ain't about how fast I get there, aint' about what's waiting on the other side, it's the climb." Yep, I just ended by quoting Miley Cyrus. :)

Miles this week: 21 miles
Weeks of training finished: 17 weeks
Total miles of training: 221 miles

Um... this is hard...

Yep, training for a marathon is hard. And yes, my name for today is Captain Obvious. Don't get me wrong, I always knew training for this marathon was going to be one of the hardest things I've ever done. Up until this week though, my long runs haven't been that hard. I think it was because I was so comfortable running 5 miles for a few months, that going up to 6, 7, and even 8 wasn't that bad. Now I'm getting into the continuous climb of mileage though, I'm definitely starting to feel it. My long run yesterday was 9 miles, and it wasn't too bad until the last mile, which is when my legs really started to bother me. Cardio and breathing-wise I was fine, but my legs were just done. It wasn't injury pain, it was just that my muscles had had enough. So those "drop-back weeks" that I said I wasn't sure if I wanted to follow? I think I'll be following them now. Pretty sure my body will need that slight break every few weeks in order to keep going.

Miles this week: 19 miles
Weeks of training finished: 16 weeks
Total miles of training: 200 miles