This weekend marks a year since my first marathon. It’s true what they say: Hindsight is 20/20. I feel like a much stronger runner than I was then physically and mentally; I’ve learned a lot about running from doing things right and doing things wrong. And since I want to get better and run a third some day, it feels right to reflect on the things I’ve learned and put the words onto paper—or a blog post, at least.

Listen To Your Body

It sounds simple, but this is probably what runners are worst at. Listen to your body and back off as soon as you feel an injury coming on. I wasn’t a very strong runner for my first marathon having just came back from a stress fracture and now whenever I feel shin splints acting up I know well enough to stop. You can always find something else to do and run the next day, or next week—it’s all better than injury.

Diet Matters

If you eat a lot of sugar and fat, your long run the next day is probably going to be great. If you eat a lot of sugar and fat every day and aren’t training hard for anything, you’re just going to get fat. A year ago I was running at roughly a 10:00min/mile using the Galloway method. For my 2nd marathon I ran at a 9:00min/mile pace. Now that I’m not training for anything I average an 8:00min/mile. The difference is less fat and more muscle, which all boils down to diet for me.

All Cardio And No Strength Makes A Sorry Runner

I love running. I’d run every day if I could. But my legs would get sore and my arms would get small and I’d look like an orc extra from a Harry Potter movie. Not only does having extra muscles make you look better, it gives your legs a break and keeps your body overall fit. It doesn’t even matter what you do so long as you do something; I’ve done the gym-machines-thing, the Shred, and now I pretty much stick to yoga. The only time my results change is when I start slacking. The one thing that hasn’t changed is that I’ve been getting faster since I’ve started.

Right now I don’t have any more marathons planned. But I know as long as I keep these things in mind I’ll be in my best shape and the next marathoner can only be better.

I’ve been getting a lot of questions about my marathon training lately, questions like “Are you still running that marathon?” or even “You’re running a marathon? Since when?” Oops. I guess that’s a fair thought since I haven’t mentioned this in months. Hopefully this will satisfy any questions.

For those of you who don’t know, I really like running and even ran a marathon last March. It wasn’t the marathon of my dreams, but I finished; getting over an injury and training in just 12 weeks made my original goal of a sub-4:00 marathon overambitious and while I proudly finished it was no picnic. I even told myself while I was still running “I’m never doing one of these again.” And then 5 days later I signed up for the Philadelphia marathon on the first day of registration. Here we go again.

From the National Marathon expo with Madeline and Holly

Since there were almost 8 months in between registration and race day, I didn’t think about training for most of the Summer. I decided that training would begin the day of a local half marathon I was running for fun. A week after that I went to Philadelphia for the Healthy Living Summit and to scope out the city to get a feel of what it would be like for the marathon.

I wouldn’t say I’ve really been following a training “plan” since then, though here’s what my routine has looked like. I knew I wanted to fit 3 20-mile runs into this training cycle and built the rest of it around that and to fit my schedule. Besides the long runs I do, the rest of my workouts are pretty standard. As anyone can see from looking at this I love running 10 miles and easily fall into a routine.

So what is “Fitness”? Since I’ve been trying to burn fat and build muscle over the past 8 months or so, I’ve been doing more cross-training with weights. When I didn’t have a gym over the Summer, I got accustomed to doing Jillian’s Shred(which I highly recommend) followed by a 25-minute yoga routine with plenty of lifting. Now that I have a gym membership again, I usually do 20 minutes of HIIT on the elliptical and 30 minutes of free weight exercises which I basically stole from all 3 levels of Jillian’s Shred so I won’t go into describing them.

The runs this time around have been nothing but stellar—a complete 180 from my last training cycle. Since my goal is a sub-4:00 marathon, I’ll need to run at or below a 9:00 pace, which has been no problem as of lately. The one 20-miler I’ve done so far I finished almost 30 minutes faster than the 20-miler I ran back in March in preparation for my first marathon. Where is this speed coming from? I don’t really know.

With the marathon 6 weeks from today I’m feeling confident, maybe even a little cocky. My first 20-miler was a breeze and I’m hoping #2 and #3 will be even faster. My pace has quickened significantly lately even on the days I’m feeling “off” and I have no clue why. Maybe it’s the cooler temperatures, maybe I’m getting faster, or maybe the cross-training is working.

One speed bump I have hit lately is eating healthy in the month of September. In between moving back to Providence and new stresses appearing there were a lot of times last month where I wasn’t making the best decisions. Even though my runs have gotten faster, a lot of the muscle definition I built up over the Summer went away over night(or over 30 nights). Since last weekend I’ve made changes to try and eat better to burn fat but still fuel well for workouts which has been nothing if not a learning process. But that can wait for another post.

If you want to stalk follow my training more closely, friend me on Dailymile. I’m also happy to answer any further questions below in the comments.

1. Now is the time to eat those cupcakes.

I’m an avid believer in carboloading for anything. Got a big test? Carboload. It’s a Tuesday night? Carboload. 11am? Carboload. But for racing it’s actually encouraged and socially acceptable, so grab a few friends and dig into dessert together.

2. Don’t plan anything for the rest of the day. Or week.

I was most sore immediately following my race(actually, I was really sore miles 20-26 but I don’t think that counts). I walked like I was in a Western and looked bad enough for people to give me their seat on the train. Looking back, planning a lunch and dinner after the race was a little overambitious. I’d recommend planning a day in bed with a Law and Order: SVU marathon(that’s my kind of marathon).

3. A kickass playlist really does matter.

I don’t know how people run a whole marathon without headphones. I’d get bored and probably quit at mile 4. Music really helps me zone out and push forward. A lot of time I had this conversation in my head: “Another hill? I don’t think I can do it. I don’t think…*Britney Spear’s new single begins to play* I’ve got it in me. I can do this.”

4. Porta Potties are hot commodities.

At my marathon there were about 15,000, and that many people needed to use the bathroom. I should have waited in one of the lines at the start line because even with porta potties every other mile they were filled up. Eventually I stopped and just waited in one of the lines because when you have to go you have to go. I learned you need to practice and plan your bathroom breaks as much as you do for the running.

5. Vanilla bean GU is freaking delicious.

I was always under the impression GU was a nasty, vile mix of chemicals with a taste to match. It’s still a mix of chemicals, but I was shocked at mile 18 when I had my first taste of it and thought it was better than anything I’ve baked lately. It actually tastes like vanilla beans! I grabbed extra and have been hoarding them since the race for a night I want them as dessert… I hope I’m not the only one.

6. A good cheering crowd makes all the difference.

The loneliest miles were the ones without people shouting and cheering on the side lines. Even the people who don’t know you support you through the endeavor and that’s worth more than anything. I can’t thank enough the people who stood in the cold holding signs that said “You have a nice ass” and “That’s What She Said” shouting “This is as hard as it gets”. I do and it was.

7. The last thing you need after running a marathon is someone to surprise you with a camera to capture how miserable you look.

Race pictures are a cruel joke. Nobody looks good in them because you don’t expect it and don’t have time to prepare. Instead, get a friend to wait by the finish line to take your picture as you pose for free. Bonus points if they bring wet wipes to wash your face and make you look halfway decent.

8. A marathon medal goes with anything.

Whether you’re wearing a sweatshirt, jacket, denim(don’t wear denim) the marathon medal is going to match it for that weekend so wear it proudly. Just remember to take it off at airport security; they get touchy about things like that.

9. You’re going to be hungry for the next week.

Just go with it.

10. You’re going to want to do another one.

I’ve already forgotten how much it all hurt, how I’m actually still injured, how it sucked to stay in Friday nights to dedicate Saturday morning to long runs, and how much it all costs. 5 days after running my first marathon I went ahead and signed up for my second. What was I thinking?