Twenty-Six Point Two

Saturday - 16.3 mile long run

Sunday - rest

Monday - 6 mile tempo run

Tuesday - 4 mile track workout (2.5 miles of speed work; 1.5 miles of warm up/cool down)

A little over two months to go until the St. Jude marathon, and right now, I am capable of running a marathon over the course of four days!  (I actually feel pretty good about that.)

Friend of the runner.

What does it feel like to train for a marathon?  Well, it depends a lot on who's doing the training.  This is only my second marathon, but much like last year, now that I've reached the 16-mile point in my long-run schedule, I AM HUNGRY ALL THE DAMN TIME.  Put food in front of me and I will eat the hell out of that damn food.  I keep finding peanuts all over my kitchen floor, because they're good for a quick hunger fix, but sometimes in my haste to consume them, I throw them all over the kitchen instead of into my mouth.

I AM ALSO TIRED.  Not like "normal" tired.  Like, going-to-bed-at-9:00-p.m.-and-sleeping-the-sleep-of-the-dead-every-freaking-night tired.  My body is resisting the mileage not by wimping out mid-run, but by trying to make me fall asleep before the run.  (I abhor naps, but I've taken two in the past four days.)

If this year is anything like last year, though, by the time we hit 18 miles, I will have pretty much completely adjusted.  It will be a running miracle.

There's a meme on Facebook that's pretty popular among my running friends:  "Never cross a woman who runs 26.2 miles for fun."  In general, I would agree with that sentiment, but if you were going to cross me, I'd recommend doing it sometime in the next week or two, while I'm still all groggy and weak with hunger.