Marathon Training Update: Week 17

As of this post, there are 11 days left until the City of Trees Marathon—race day is October 13. Eleven days. I can't believe we've been training for 17 weeks! How does that happen? Saturday during our long run, I said to my mom, "Isn't it crazy that we've been training for four months? Four months! Just for a run!" It's pretty darn exciting. You can see our 18-week marathon training schedule here.

So, a couple of updates. The calf strain I was nursing two weeks ago after injuring it during week 13's 22-mile run is not fully healed, but it's well on its way. I don't have anymore sharp pains, nor do I feel any pain while running, but occasionally it's tight in the evenings after a morning run and working all day. I modified my running for two full weeks (weeks 14 and 15), running only half of what I was scheduled to run and icing my calf daily. I have also drastically slowed down my midweek run pace—before I was doing some fun speed training, running anywhere from 6:45 to 7:30-minute miles—and now I'm back at a steady 9:00 to 10:00 minute-per-mile pace. My legs keep longing to pick up the pace, but staying healthy and caring for this injury is more important than how fast I'm running right now. I can't finish a marathon if I'm not even able to start it due to an injury, right? So slow and steady and without pain I go!

The other thing that's been interesting is how dark it's been in the mornings. The sky used to begin lightening up right around 5:45 to 6:00 am, and now that hasn't been happening until close to 7:15 am. It makes for a very, very dark morning run. I've changed my routes to stay more in neighborhoods, because if I'm out on the road—and since we live so close to open farmland without stoplights or street lights—I can't see where I'm running. So neighborhoods it is for now, just to be on the safe side.

I am so excited that there are only 11 days left. We are ready. I could have run this race a month ago, I know that for a fact. It's crazy to think that now a 12-mile run is short for me. While training for our half marathons before, I just about died anytime I did over 6-miles. It's amazing how my body has adapted to the long runs and how I don't even second guess it anymore. I just do it, no matter the distance. 8 miles? Piece of cake. 15 miles? No big deal. 26 miles? BRING IT ON.