Eye of the Tiger

Today's post is all about my marathon training. Feel free to change the channel and come back next week when I'll be back to sharing stories of our weekend of pumpkin carving and other fun fall festivities if running is of absolutely no interest to you. But considering the fact that running takes up about 30 percent of my life and brain right now, I feel it deserves it's very own blog post to document the journey.

So. I've been running. And running. And running.

As my friends the Black Eyed Peas say, and the base keeps runnin runnin and runnin runnin and RUNNIN RUNNIN and...!

Sorry, in addition to running, I live vicariously through the lyrics of my marathon playlist on Spotify. More on that later.

During the months of October and November, training is relatively easy. The longest run I have for October is tomorrow and it's 4 miles. Not terrible by any means. My longest run in November is only 5 miles and "thankfully" it falls the day after Thanksgiving, so I will be all sorts of carbo loaded up for that one.

Even December doesn't feel like it will be all that bad, but we'll see if I'm singing a different tune when I'm struggling to pound out those 6 mile Friday runs while wearing my jingle bells.

So, the big extra long training runs will start in the new year. Each week my long run will gradually increase from 7 to 9 to 10....then before I know it, April will be here and I'll be running a 20 mile day as part of the training. And y'all. HOLY SCHNIKEES. That scares me. A lot!

And the really scary thing is that once April 27th arrives, I will actually have to put my money where my mouth is and attempt this 26.2 feat of physical and mental torture, and I honestly have no idea if I can actually do it.

So....to combat these feelings of fear, I've been doing as much reading as possible about marathon training, and I recently came across a really great idea to help me feel more inspired to make it to the finish line. The article I read suggested to dedicate each mile to a loved one. The idea is that if I'm struggling to make it through, let's say, mile 22 - then I'll remember that I dedicated that mile to my sister and it will give me the boost I need to push through and get that mile behind me for her.

I actually think I'm going to take this idea a step further and ask each person who I'm dedicating a mile to, to pray for me during that mile and to even send me a text of encouragement if they want to. I have a vague idea of the time frame when I'll be running each mile between the hours of 7:30am and 12:30pm (LORD HELP ME), so I can divide out each mile and ask for someone different to pray for me every 12 minutes from start to finish. Prayer is a powerful tool and I am certain that if I have a marathon prayer team pushing me through, I will make it to the finish line.

Even though I'm reading and preparing and praying through these running-related fears, I've still got some nagging worries that just won't leave me alone. First of all, I worry about injuring myself during training and not being able to go through with this to the end. Most of the time I run on the treadmill simply out of a safety precaution because I don't want to twist my ankle or trip and roll down a hill (as I've been known to occasionally do) while running outside.

Secondly, I worry about my phone going berserk during the race and leaving me without any running tunes to help motivate me through. I know this may sound petty because most certainly people can run without music. But I am not one of those people. I would surely die if I had to run even 1 mile without MC Hammer telling me that I am too legit to quit. Running is so much more of a mental game than a physical one - and I assure you that the only way I will survive this race is if I can pretend I'm Rocky preparing for a big fight while listening to Eye of the Tiger.

Lastly, I worry about having tummy troubles. I'm going to keep this as mild as possible....but y'all. Marathon runners legit poop their pants sometimes. Ok, so maybe that wasn't so mild. But let me break this down for you. In order to run for FIVE HOURS, one needs to eat lots of food to give them energy. That food will digest and have to go somewhere. If you are really lucky, then you get all that dirty business taken care at home before you leave for the race. If you are only a little lucky, then you take care of business in the disgusting porta potty set up at the start line. But some runners just can't make anything happen before that starting whistle blows. And those are the people who end up with gross stuff running out of their jogging shorts. I'm sorry, but it's true. Please dear Jesus, let me not be one of those people. I am legit contemplating wearing some depends under my leggings.

So there you have it. The thoughts that are...wait for it... RUNNING...around in my head these days.