So, running + marathon training. I’ve actually been doing it, lately. With varying levels of success…but considering everything else going on in my day-to-day life I’m feeling pretty good at where I’m at with running. I’ve been getting #GameOnPGH 4+ days of running in each week, I’ve sprinkled in a few days of snowboarding/hiking to spice things up and I feel pretty good about the amount of effort I have to put into my runs, physically + mentally. Not bad, right?!

I’ve only topped out at 12 miles, so far. And while I had a minor “gah, that’s not enough” spaz the other day I’ve done a little counting + scribbling and I feel pretty good about it. My upcoming weeks of training [only 10 left!] are going to look something like this, in terms of long run mileage…14, 10, 16, 18, 14, 20, 22, 16, 14, 12, race day. Seems like a solid #GameOnPGH plan, eh?

**you can take a peak at my semi-regularly updated training game plan here: #GameOnPGH Training**

That gives me a steady but manageable increase each week with some legitimate down weeks every third week. Plus, I’ll get three weeks of tapering. All things I’m comfortable with and confident in. And, now that I’ve come to terms with this “four mile warm-up” mumbo jumbo I know how to get past that 5-7 mile rut I dug myself into over the last few weeks.

I’ve even been doing a fairly good job of sticking with my four-types-of-runs version of a training plan…if you ignore the “speed work” run I put on that list. And the longer runs I missed out on when I couldn’t get myself to go beyond 5 miles [granted, one day a two-a-day got me that long run!]. Oops. Okay, so I haven’t been that on spot with my training but somehow I’m still confident I won’t die on the course come race day. But I have a good “excuse”…

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…I am easily distracted! I live about 2 miles up a mountainside in a condo surrounded by endless ribbons of hard packed snow trails. Sure, down the mountain there is a long, winding paved trail along a river but it feels silly to drive down to pavement if I could just run around int he snow, right? This is how it all starts. A few times I have left the house with Max and hit the snowy trails, on a mission to get down the mountain and onto the paved trails for a few miles of “road running”. I had good intentions, I swear.

In my two weeks of actual marathon training I have managed to get down the mountain and onto the paved trails exactly…once. And that was just because I was on a mission to return a few things to Target.  Every other time? Well, we get down the mountain and are faced with about a quarter mile of running along shoulder of a paved road. Not terrible, but not exactly fun. There is room to safely run but it requires sloshing through melting snow [hello there, spring in February!] which neither Max nor I enjoy.  So, rather than trudge through the slush we meander along the snow packed trails and while Max is peeing on everything I focus on running the full 2+ miles back up the mountain without any breathers. With slow but notable success!

I mean, I’ve been told the Pittsburgh Marathon has a few hills so…I’m still training for the marathon, right? Ha.

Either way, I’m feeling pretty good about where I’m at. Maybe a little too good as I got a little trigger happy on UltraSignUp — the Never Summer 100K is officially part of my life, as a runner. I paced Never Summer last year and sort of loved it. It’s a mountain race in July, it could rain, snow, thunder or scorch…or all of the above. At the very least I won’t be bored?


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