Monday Marathon update

I am now starting my third week of training for the Quad Cities Marathon... Only 14 short weeks away!!  I have a feeling this summer is going to really fly by?!  Part of the reason I started this blog was to hold me accountable - the good and the bad.  And I've had both in the past two weeks.

MILES
Week One = 14 miles + 2 spin classes + 2 strength training sessions
Week Two = 34 miles + 2 spin classes + 1 strength training session
In week one, the days got away from me and I never got my long run done, resulting in a poor week of miles.  In week two, I went out hard on Monday, determined to get back on track.  Throw in a 4 mile race and my mileage is probably a little high for this point in training.  During my long run yesterday, I could feel it in my knees... although that may be from the substantial amount of hill work I ran this week.  I haven't been real loyal to the Run Less, Run Faster plan, but I do plan to get intervals back in the plan this week.

Side note... I surpassed the 500 mile mark for 2011 last week!

WEIGHT
Week One = down 1 pound
Week Two = up 2 pounds
Seriously, does that make sense?  I burn over 5000 calories this week and GAIN weight?!  Okay, okay, my food intake has been lazy.  Today, I logged back in to My Fitness Pal.  If you use MFP, be my friend here and we can help keep each other accountable!  I was pretty successful during the early part of the year with balancing weight loss and training.  I need to get back to that... counting calories and making sure the every morsel of food I put in my body is pure fuel.  No empty calories!  This is so hard during summer with the busy schedule and social gatherings.  To get to my race weight goal, I need to shed 1.5 lbs each week.  Will Power... ACTIVATE!

During this quest to the Mighty Marathon...

I must have the discipline to train properly, which includes 

the responsibility to take care of my body throughout the journey.

MENTAL

In my head, I'm totally in this game!  I'm still super excited for this challenge.  Yesterday, I dragged my sorry butt out of bed at 5am to head out for a 11.2 mile long run.  I did not want to, but knew it was my only run window on Father's Day.  Once I got running, it felt so good.  I keep telling myself, "You are training for a Marathon."  It always makes me smile.  During the Steamboat race expo last week, I met Joe, the race director for the Quad Cities Marathon.  It was so motivating to chat about the marathon with him, someone even more invested in the race than I am!  I finally took care of the little details and got my hotel booked too!