The Road to Chicago Begins

I'll begin my first "official" post with a confession: I am terrified that I have bitten off more than I can chew with this whole Chicago Marathon thing. Winter was not good for me. If I am being completely honest, I've just been lazy. I let the cold and the rain wear me down and instead of hoofing it to the gym for some cross-training, I just pulled up the covers and hibernated...for four straight months...and gained 10 lbs. in the process. Ugh.

Then, in March, I realized that I had a race coming up. Two of my very best friends and I ran the Tarheel 10-Miler together for the first time last year and I knew that it was no easy course. We had decided to make it an annual event, so I pulled myself together, did some training runs and managed to finish it with a better time than last year.

Still representing the Wolfpack at the finish
of the Tarheel 10-Miler in Kenan Stadium

My friends Andrea and Leah enjoying some after-race
painting at Wine & Design in Chapel Hill

However, I also ended up with a foot injury (most likely from poor training combined with over-exertion on race day...apparently, you can't outrun karma). After a couple of weeks off dealing with that while watching the training date for the marathon creeping ever-closer on my calendar, I was really scared. It was time to ask for help.

Me and Kelly enjoying a
beautiful evening at
Round Peak Vineyards

My desperate plea was enthusiastically answered by my friend, Kelly. She talked through my training plan with me, suggested cross-training options and, most importantly, offered to train with me when she could and provide accountability for me on the days that she couldn't. It is amazing what that did for my outlook. I was honest about how scared and unprepared I felt and she met every worry with an encouraging word about how we would overcome it. I feel a later blog post shaping up about running friends...stay tuned.

So began my first official week of marathon training. Here's how the week shaped up:

Sunday - 6 miles
Monday - Stretched at home (I'd like to replace this with a yoga class)
Tuesday - 5 miles
Wednesday - XT/Spin (Kelly's hubby/spy, Andy, was there to make sure I showed!)
Thursday - XT/Boot Camp (Ouch!)
Friday - 3 miles (my short/fast run turned out to be the slowest/hardest of the week)
Saturday - rest (finally!)

Overall, it was a good week. My runs weren't as fast as I would have liked, Boot Camp truly kicked my booty and the long run was much harder than it should have been at this point. However, October 13th is 121 days away and there is nothing I can do about any of that except keep working hard and looking forward. Besides...I really, really want one of those 26.2 stickers for my car.