10 Weeks Out

69 days until Boston, training is going well, I feel happy and healthy! I am now Powered by Chocolate Milk as well as Brooks. It's so nice to have the support of companies that care about athletes.

Last week wasn't a particularly hard week in my training, my long run was only 16 miles, but I also had a 12 mile progression run on Thursday. Next weekend I have my first 20 miler and I think I am ready for it!

I ran with my friend and old teammate on Saturday and ran with my other friend today. I find being a distance runner can be quite lonely sometimes, you have to make friends with bands, ebooks and podcasts. Once in a while you get to actually run with people and it's awesome! Running buddies can be surprisingly hard to come by. Most people think that because my significant other is also a runner, that means we run together. Not a chance! Most of my running friends will tell you the same thing! My boyfriend's easy run pace is about 7min/mile, which is basically my marathon race pace. Needless to say, his easy runs are my hard runs. We've tried in the past and always ended up fighting. Now we run together maybe once or twice a year. Usually it's when I have a tempo and he paces me. Other than him, I sometimes will run with my younger brother who is a cook and a retired competitive paddler. He is actually perfect to run with, except because I am his sister he never tells me if I am going too fast or too far, he just sucks it up every time. His work/school schedule is also brutal so I only end up running with him about once a month.

My two main buddies are the two friends and former Bison teammates I was talking about before. Neither of them are training for a marathon, but at least they run a good speed and the conversations are entertaining. I usually drop them off at their houses and then keep going for another hour or so. We always run towards each other and meet half way. It's so funny because we will both leave 5-10 minutes past the time we actually say we are going to leave. I usually will meet up with one of them a week.

I really appreciate my running buddies, even if I only run with them twice a year, once a month or once a week. It is so much better than doing every run on my own.

Of course my best running buddy is chocolate milk! (lol) It helps me recover every time!

That's all for now. Run Happy! (Brooks)