You Know You're Training for a Marathon When.....

You Know You're Training for a Marathon When.....

1.) You buy more than one pair of running shoes in a year.

2.) You plan to wear closed-toe shoes indefinitely.

3.) Most of your laundry pile consists of running clothes.

4.) You can no longer fit all of your running clothes in your dresser.

5.) 13.1 miles becomes a training run.

6.) You care more about comfort during a long run than fashion.

7.) You frequently find a small amount of blood in at least one article of clothing after a long run.

8.) You constantly have blisters on your feet.

9.) Your boots no longer zip up over your calves.

10.) Most of your fluid intake consists of water and gatorade.

11.) Gu has become a new food group on your own food pyramid.

12.) You plan your weekends around your long run.

13.) You make running plans with friends instead of going to happy hour.

14.) Your neighbors start asking you how many miles you ran each weekend.

15.) You see the same people twice during a run.

16.) A 3 mile run can suck one day and a 7 mile run can feel great the next day.

17.) You start a run with gloves and a headband on and end in shorts and a t-shirt.

18.) A beautiful day improves/increases your speed.

19.) 6 or 8 miles are now considered short runs.

20.) You can calculate your mile splits faster than your phone can.

21.) You get multiple emails a week from MapMyRun.

22.) You only buy running clothes or running accessories whenever you go shopping.

23.) A good night's sleep can make or break your run the next day.

24.) You have many obstacles thrown your way during training.

25.) You can take 3 weeks off from running and return to training like nothing ever happened.

26.) You can now run more miles than it would take you to drive to work.

27.) Double digit runs are a normal part of your weekend.

28.) You start a run in snow and end the run in 50 degree weather.

29.) Walkers and other runners begin to recognize you when you're out for a run.

30.) You are tempted to run or feel restless on days off.

I think that this list will definitely continue to grow over the next few weeks and there are probably tons of things that I forgot to add to the list. I will end there for now and talk about this week. Week 22 has been my best week of marathon training yet! I was a little disappointed after the Syracuse Half Marathon because the race was a bit of a struggle for me and it did not go quite as I expected. However, I have quickly learned over the past few months that marathon training never goes quite as well as you planned. This was the first week in quite awhile that I actually completed all of my short runs during the week and stuck to my actual schedule. There have been plenty of weeks where I have skipped a short run or changed the mileage on at least one of my short runs. I decided that I should try to stick as close to my marathon training schedule as possible this week. My 3 miler on Tuesday was a little rough because it was just two days after Syracuse and it was my first run in my new kicks. I went into Wednesday's run expecting to have to shorten my 7 miler, but it actually felt great and I completed the entire run. I was really tempted to skip my 4 miler on Thursday because it was the beginning of spring break and I had a 3 1/2 hour drive ahead of me. However, I decided to run before I drove home since it would be dark by the time that I got home. I had one of my fastest runs in weeks because I was so excited to head home and start my spring break.

I ended week 22 of training with a 16 miler. After my race last weekend, I knew that I needed to prepare my body much better for my long run. I did everything that I was supposed to yesterday. I drank a lot of water, ate my carbs, had plenty of downtime and got a decent amount of sleep. I woke up this morning feeling good and ready to run. I was also excited for this run because I was going to be able to run 16 miles through the streets I grew up on. The change of scenery made a huge difference in my run and I really enjoyed running from one end of town to the other and back. I was also sporting my brand new Mizuno Wave Elixir 8's and a new Nathan Trail Mix 4 hydration belt. I filled up three of my bottles with water and one with gatorade. I grabbed my hydration belt, 3 packets of Gu and my headphones and I was on my way out for my 16 miler. The gorgeous weather today also made the run much more enjoyable. I was surprised at how much easier this run felt than my run last weekend. I felt really good for the entire run and nothing hurt when I was done running. I am extremely happy with how today's run went and I actually feel like I'm going to be able to run a marathon in two months! Here's a glance at what week 22 looked like:

Week 22
3/26/13 - 3 miles in 28:41 (9:34 min/mi pace)
3/27/13 - 7 miles in 1:10:11 (10:01 min/mi pace)
3/28/13 - 4 miles in 35:31 (8:53 min/mi pace)
3/30/13 - 16 miles in 2:41:20 (10:05 min/mi pace)

312 miles complete in 49:02:00 and only 56 days until conquering 26.2 miles!