I’ve been blessed with some super cool friends. They are always doing cool things and today I wanted to tell you today about my good friend Heather, who is coaching this year for the Liver Life Challenge half marathon and marathon training program here in Cleveland!!

What is the Liver Life Challenge you may be wondering?? It is an endurance training team that helps participants achieve their own fitness goals, while raising funds for the American Liver Foundation.

Basically, Heather coaches all the awesome peeps who sign up to train and raise funds. It’s a huge time commitment for her and I admire her for doing it! This year their targeted race is the 2013 Disney marathon weekend! What a fun race!

I can honestly say training for and running a full marathon last year changed me for the better. So if you have been considering biting the bullet here is a great opportunity to do so!

So I just wanted to pass along the info because there are few things I love more than awesome friends, running and raising moolah for a good cause. So if you are interested you can contact Heather directly at mile26andmore@yahoo.com or reach out to the local campaign manager, Katrina, at kmarshall@liverfoundation.org. Yay awesome people!

Can’t believe it’s MARATHON WEEK! And this will be the last ‘marathon training’ recap for the Columbus Marathon! Next week hopefully I’ll be writing an amazing race recap!

Planned Week & Actual Week:

The week went OK. Taper is wonderful, but my knee still hurts. I did my long run of 8 miles with Holly on Saturday morning. The weather was perfect and the company was great. We did an out and back on a metro park path. It’s a bit hillier than I’d prefer but was good nonetheless. My knee hurt off and on the entire run though. Never enough pain to make me need to stop but just annoying as shit. At this point it’s just a HUGE HUGE HUGE prayer that it holds up during the race this weekend. Until then I’ll be stretching and icing it like crazy!

Factoids from this week:

• I make award winning chili.
• My knees are old. They don’t like marathon training.

Goals from last week – I did pretty good. Lots of water and sleep, need more stretching though!

Goals for the upcoming week:

• Bed as early as possible, no later than 10!
• Water, water, water – and minimal diet coke!
• STRETCH FOAMROLL ICE!

You’ll get a full race goal post later this week!

This week I’m taking it very easy. Today is a rest day. Tomorrow probably 3 miles. Wednesday an easy bike ride. Thursday an easy 2 miles. Rest Friday and Saturday. Oh, and then 26.2 miles on Sunday!!!

What are you up to this week?

Well, I survived my first week of taper. It wasn’t as restful as I hoped… my own fault. My knee is actually in a decent amount of pain as well. But I’m just taking it one day at a time and hoping that come race day I survive without too much pain.

Planned Week & Actual Week:

I was hoping to log a few more quality miles than I did, but it is what it is. My long run with Heather went well yesterday. It took us a few miles to get our pace in the right area but once we did we just cruised along. I enjoyed the cooler temps for sure! Heather has 2 more miles than me on her scheduled so I biked along side her for those and I think it actually helped my knee not get stiff so quickly.

We have a future runner on our hands. He loves amphipods!

Post long run yesterday I was super grumpy. I was tired and sore. My knee hurt a lot. Miles wouldn’t stop taking recycling items out of the bin. I fell down the stairs.

Once I fell down the stairs I just burst into tears. 70% of the tears were from the pain from falling (elbow and butt) and 30% of the tears were just my exhaustion and frustration. Mike, being super-husband, immediately handed me a bag of ice and bundled Miles up to go play outside. I laid in bed and watched an episode of Mad Men and composed myself. Then I spent a quiet hour grocery shopping alone. Just what I needed.

I went to bed at 8 PM last night, watched another 1.5 episodes of Mad Men on the iPad and was fast asleep before 10. I really needed that night of good sleep. I feel like a new woman today. I definitely need to make sleep a priority the next 2 weeks, no excuses!

This week I’m looking forward to some healthy hearty home cooked meals, putting up some fall decorations, foam rolling, a little running, quality time with the boys and sleep. Also, we have our annual Chili Cook-off OSU party this Saturday! I’m aiming for a win!

Factoids from this week:

• Parks & Rec is still the best show on TV. Also, I’m so happy to have my favorites shows back on!
• Cooler temps = better running for me!

Goal from last week – SUPER HUGE FAIL.

Goals for the upcoming week:

• Bed by 10 PM – NO EXCUSES!
• Keep up on my water intake! It’s easier for me to slack off with these cooler temps.
• Foam roll and stretch. At least 3 downward dogs a day!

What’s your favorite cold weather meal to make?

I love my first born baby boy. He’s sweet and funny and quite a handful at times. He’s just perfect.

However, my second baby is almost here. The marathon.

Having been pregnant with a baby, growing it inside me and laboring it out was a pretty crazy and life changing experience.

This marathon training has been no different. It has been a labor of love.

I made a decision to tackle a marathon. I fell in love with the idea. I then discussed it with my husband. I got his buy in on this crazy idea. Just like I did with having a baby.

Getting to the point of committing to a marathon didn’t come that easy. I had to build a base and it was frustrating at times. Just like getting pregnant didn’t come that easily either.

Once I committed to the idea, the real work began. The training plan was made, revised and then embarked on. There were good days and bad days. Just like pregnancy.

Every week I made it was a victory. Every week got tougher, the challenges bigger. The rewards were sweeter though. Every week that went by was another week closer to survival. Just like those many, many weeks of pregnancy.

Once I got past the 18 mile run mark my chances of finishing a marathon greatly increased. Just like that 27th (or so) week of pregnancy.

I’ve now gotten over the hardest physical part of training. It’s time to taper, recover, reflect and get ready for the big day. This is different from pregnancy… Miles decided to join us 3 weeks earlier than expected. So now, I’m in foreign waters.

I have time to relax, recover and get ready for the big day. Maybe too much time. Too much thinking, doubting, freaking out.

Can I make it 26.2 miles?

Will I run smart the first half so I can survive that second half?

Will I have horrible stomach issues the day of?

Will the weather be complete crap?

Will my knee and IT band revolt on me?

Will the experience on race day be all I’m hoping it will be?

I realize most of these issues are out of my control and stressing over it is worthless. However, I feel like these thoughts are all part of the marathon experience so I’m embracing them and letting my mind mull them over.

What I do know for sure is that I’ve given it all I’ve got and will continue to do so for the next few weeks.

I’ve grown and become a stronger woman that I ever was. Regardless of how race day goes no one can take away the miles I’ve ran, the sweat I’ve poured, the tears I’ve shed, and the laughter I’ve shared.

How do you prepare for a big event in your life?

Don’t forget to enter my RUN hoodie giveaway!!!

Week fourteen of training has been just a tad bit crazy. I started the week sure that I was going to be injured and have to ditch all my hard work and ended the week on a high from the Akron Marathon relay and killing a 20 mile run. That’s a PDR, by the way!

Planned Week & Actual Week:

INJURY UPDATE: I tried to take really good care of my left leg this week. I iced, I stretched, I rolled. REPEAT. I still ran, just to see how the progress was going. Thursday night I had a breakthrough with a racquetball ball. I was doing some myofascial massage (rolling on the tiny ball under my hip) and had a very noticeable release of pressure. It just felt like sweet sweet relief in my hip. SCORE! I instantly felt relieved thinking this was probably the root of my pain in my hip, along my IT band and in my knee. I knew I wan’ts totally healed, but this was certainly a turning point.

Saturday during the relay I had zero pain while running, and just tightness and some soreness afterwards. This made me feel infinitely better about facing 20 miles today.

We planned to start our long run at 6:15 AM today at Christie’s. Heather was going to run the first 12-13 with us (she killed it), then we’d continue on. Unfortunately traffic had other plans and there was an accident on a bridge with traffic at a total hault. I started to freak. We were NOT moving. Finally, after some text encouragement from Christie, I got the balls to drive through and up a very steep grassy median. Thank goodness I had my car and not Mike’s Prius.

So we got a later start than we would have preferred but whatevs. We cruised around a big ole loop and covered 13 miles and ended up back at Christie’s. Heather said peace out and Christie and I then had our quickest transition (refilling water bottles) to date I think. We were back to pounding the pavement in 90 seconds or less.

Restarting, even after such a quick stop, did pain my knee a little. After 3 or so minutes though it was fine. Good incentive not to stop during the marathon I guess!

The last 7 miles went pretty good. There wasn’t much talking but we desperately held on to our sub 11 pace and only snuck over it for a few of the miles.

All 20 splits:

1. 11:21
2. 10:54
3. 10:49
4. 10:57
5. 10:32
6. 10:37
7. 10:49
8. 10:35
9. 10:50
10. 10:35
11. 10:43
12. 10:45
13. 10:43
14. 10:47
15. 11:00
16. 11:03
17. 10:55
18. 10:54
19. 10:55
20. 10:57

Good enough for 10:50 overall pace. I’m happy with it. It was by far the best I’ve felt on a run that long. Way better than I felt on our 18 miler. Post run I got to have my face eaten off my Christie’s amazingly cute puppy, Zeus.

This run was exactly what I needed going into sweet sweet taper. I feel confident (about finishing) and excited for the marathon!

Factoids from this week:

• I love carbs.
• Be patient with an injury. Take care of yourself.
• I have the BEST husband ever for being a rockstar dad while I am off having fun with the relay gals and trotting 20 miles. Don’t worry I bought him some beer and an iTunes gift card today. Oh, and steaks tonight! (I’m slightly excited about that too!)

Goals from last week – ALL MET!

Goals for the upcoming week –

• In bed by 9:30 every night! Except for tomorrow, I’m have a Chicago round trip and will be back late.

What is something awesome you’ve done lately?