I am only 54 days away from the marathon.

Training is going very well, the biggest problem I’ve had as it progresses is finding time to do the longer runs.  The weekend long runs can take 3 to 3 1/2 hours out of the day which means getting up insanely early to avoid blowing my Saturday and to avoid the worst of the heat.  The long weekday run is at 8 miles right now and it is tough to get up early enough to do it before work. But if time is the biggest problem I’ve had I think that means I’m doing good.  At this point I am just trying not to trip and hurt myself.

The training plan I’ve been following is Hal Higdon’s Novice 1. I just started week 12. I’ve shuffled around some of the dates for things like the half marathon race the other month and having some Saturday morning commitments but for the most part I’ve stuck to it.

The last long run I did was 16 miles this past Saturday, which means I only have an additional 4 miles to go before I’m at the longest run of the training plan. The way I see it that means I’m almost in the home stretch and soon it will all be downhill from here.

The last week of ramping up, the week with the longest runs, happens to be while I’m traveling for work in September. Fortunately, three coworkers stepped up to keep me on track and agreed to run with me on each of my scheduled training runs that week. Even the ten mile weekday run.  Know how people say “let me check my schedule” before committing to something? In our case it involved “let me check my training schedule” because two of those coworkers are also in training for marathons in late 2014. The third had intended to do a marathon in late 2014 also but mono thwarted his plans. I’m very thankful I have good friends to run with while I’m in town!

The last weekend before the marathon I’m walking the Color Flash 5 K with Kevin and two friends. I’ve wanted to do a color run for a few years but the timing never worked out. Kevin happened to notice a sign for it in the neighborhood this weekend and I thought it was fitting something this fun that I’ve wanted to do for so long was right before the marathon. It’ll be a nice way to celebrate the end of training.

54 days to go and haven’t tripped yet,

Michelle