Day 55

I've now run a total of 188 miles and burned 25,000 calories over the past 8 weeks of marathon training. My longest run was this morning, which according to runkeeper was 14.37 miles. Woot for me, I can officially run more than half a marathon. In other news I drank pop while on my short vacation, it was delicious. I also enjoyed large amounts of chocolate covered pretzels and raisins, in addition to abundant fried food, probably used up all 25,000 calories.

I've been reading the book, The Non-Runner's Marathon Trainer. The book was written in response to a class offered at the University of Northern Iowa. Over a semester time, students, runners and non runners alike, would train for a marathon. The book has been fantastic. It breaks up the 16 week training schedule by chapter, focusing on one week at a time. I've always been confident that after training I could be physically ready to finish a marathon, but I've been worried from the get-go about my mental ability. The book has offered some interesting helps to becoming mentally ready.

My favorite, that I'm trying to adopt in our home is focusing on the positive. If negative things are thought or said, you are to insert the phrase, "but it doesn't matter." So for instance if I think, "I really hate running up this hill at the end of my run," and those who live by me know which hill I'm talking about, I insert, "but it doesn't matter." I've found this to be a pretty no-nonsense approach. I still think it's pretty crummy to have a hill at the end of a run, but who cares I'm going to run it anyway.

Another tip is to act confident and optimistic, even to the point of telling people you are a marathoner.

There have also been helps about visualization, positive self talk, and working on concentration. None of which I have done yet because I haven't felt like it, "but it doesn't matter," I'm going to do it anyway.

So, so far so good. 8 weeks to go with 5 super long training runs in my future. Wish me luck!