This is week four of Chicago Marathon training. I only know that because I have great friends that keep reminding me how much we should be training at this point. Two weeks ago I clocked about 3 miles including a 12 mile long run. Last week? 5 miles. The only thing I am proud of and that is that one of those miles was over a mile-long swim.

I’m not really sure what it is. The weather hasn’t been too bad this summer, even though the humidity has been pretty rough. The morning of the 12 mile-long run we headed out at 8 AM, which was probably a little too late. Could there really be that much of a difference in training for Chicago versus New York? The dates to start training are only three weeks apart, but perhaps this has something to do with it.

This summer I have been much more into swimming than running. Absolutely one of my favorite things about New York is not only the many city parks, but also the fact that you get access to them for free. There is an Olympic distance pool in a park right by my house, so I wake up in the morning, jump out of bed, pull on my swimsuit, and walk down the street right to the pool. This is literally a dream come true- to get laps in before work everyday. But last night when I couldn’t fall asleep because I was thinking about how much I haven’t started training for this race, I started wondering if I should even be swimming laps. I know it’s good to crosstrain, but it doesn’t work the same muscle groups that are used for running.

When I couldn’t fall asleep last night I attempted to read my Runner’s World magazine, in hopes of getting inspired. This led me think about training and texting Brittany to make sure our long-runs are lined up. She and Leticia are fantastic to have around to hold me accountable for getting my runs done.  Brittany also encouraged me to start using The Daily Mile which is a great way to track all of my workouts.

One thing I am committed to in marathon training is writing on my blog again! So I will commit to doing this every week and reporting on how training is going.

Here I am in my happy place at 7:15 in the morning.