Week 4 ~ It's all about the mental game

Week 4 came to an end and with it the very first month of marathon training is wrapped up! Wow, that month went fast.  I wasn't prepared for all of the ups and downs and feelings of doubt and
exhaustion and wanting to quit.  Yet at the same time I had some pretty awesome feelings of bad assery and excitement.  This week the mental games were out in full force, yet I even managed to find ways to add to them.  Making challenges to test my dedication and persistence.

Marathon Training: Week 4

The Miles:

Sunday~ 3.52
Monday~ 4.05
Tuesday~ 1.02
Thursday~ 3.03
Saturday~ 9.02

The Weather:

Oh the weather.  Right now I am in a terrible foul mood over the weather.  Week 4 training was insanely tough.  Living in Maine I am very well versed in getting out there in anything, or I would never be able to get out at all.  However, over THREE feet of snow was dumped in just four days.  Mountains of snow are now everywhere, EVERYWHERE.  I bumped up my runs so I ran Sunday and Monday to get as much of training in as I could before the Blizzard of 2015 hit, aka Juno.  And hit boy did it hit.  The snow started and seemed to never stop.  I did not have to go out on Tuesday but decided 1 mile in the blizzard would be great training mentally for the marathon.  Mental toughness to run in a blizzard can come in very handy! Friday a new storm came in making Saturday's long run 9 miles of beach sand feeling running.  It was hard to get footing and the constant fighting through was exhausting.

Gear:

This week I added in an LED high visibility light up belt for better visibility.  With all of the snow and whiteout conditions I wanted to give myself as much visibility that I could.  For Saturday's long run I re-visited the GU.  This time taking Energybits before I left and a GU pack halfway through.  Again the GU was difficult to get down but I managed.  If it ever stops snowing I need to get out and get some Honey Stinger chews.

Routes:

Routes again for the most part small loops around sticking to what is the safest with all of this darn snow! Being extra careful for cars backing out of driveways, knowing full well that they can't see me over the snowbanks.  For the long run my sister-in-law and I headed off on a giant loop that we knew on a Saturday morning would be very lightly traveled.  With all the snow cover and the shoulders of the roads mounded with snow we knew we were going to be doing most of our running in the middle of the road.  Thank goodness for small country towns because this was a real option for us.  This route was also hill heavy with some great elevation changes, adding in some great training for the actual marathon course.

Lessons Learned:

This week I learned that I DEFINITELY have the toughness to do this.  I also probably definitely have the crazy to do this as well.  Getting out there in the snow, the negative temps and the pure just horribleness of a Maine winter means I am tough, I am bad ass and I am very capable of accomplishing this feat.  Not many people run marathons (1% of the population right?) and not many of them are willing to push through with their training in the winter circumstances.  I have never ever been a treadmill runner so I am making it work in anything.  That being said it is getting dangerous out there.  If the storms continue to roll in I may actually need to give the Mill a try.  Because after all living is important to seeing this thing through :)

How are YOU a bad ass?  What are some mental training tricks you use?