The marathon lifestyle

I'm quickly realizing that training for a marathon is a lifestyle. Summer is upon us and there are parties and barbecues to be had, softball games to be played, weekend outings to be planned and yard work to be done, among everything else that comes along with the season. And all of these activities must revolve around the training. I have to make sure I get enough sleep, eat properly, stretch often and, of course, find the time for the actual running. I've started planning out the week ahead every Sunday to ensure that each run is scheduled either after work, on my lunch hour or early in the morning (so far this is only on weekends...I can't get my butt out of bed at 5:30AM to run before work) depending on what else is going on that day. It definitely gets hectic and sometimes feels like there's not a lot of down-time, but this is what I want to do and the commitment is worth it. Hopefully I'll feel the same way when I'm running +50K for the week, 32K of which on Sundays. :)

Luckily for me, my hubby is also engaged in an intensive training program (for a speedy half marathon) so while our training is quite different, we still feel like we are doing this together and even run together on occasion.

I remember last summer when hubby and I were "training" (I use the term loosely) for our first half marathon. It involved running sporadically 2 or 3 times a week, an occasional "long" run (peaking at 13K) and a weekend in Montréal two weeks before. We were so unprepared, it's a miracle we even survived that race. My how things have changed. Will it pay off? We'll find out in about three months.