One semester of school down, eight more to go. Its been amazing to have my evenings free for the past week. I am going to be so sad when I have to give this up in a month!

I kinda got derailed from the marathon train during the crunch time for school. Luckily, I’ve kept up my long runs so its not going to be too hard to get back on track. I’ve been running with three girls that I graduated with from high school – they are running the Marine Corps Marathon the week before mine, which I’m planning to go to DC and support them at and one of them will be coming to NYC to support me. Its so nice to get up early on the weekends knowing a group is waiting for you to run (with bagels too!).

I’m running in two races before the big one – my first 10k at the Great Race on September 26 and the Hershey Half Marathon on October 3.

My training game plan for this week is:

• Monday – rest day
• Tuesday – 3 mile run
• Wednesday – speed workout
• Thursday – 4 mile run
• Friday – rest day
• Saturday – 8 mile long run
• Sunday – rest day

Its not perfect, but I’m still tweaking my plan and I have some commitments that are making me move things around. I have been slacking on the mid-week runs, so I’m keeping the milage light for now. One of the rest days will most likely be a cross training day. My goal is to just finish and enjoy the marathon right now. Once I get further in my training I’ll be able to decide on a time goal depending on how things are going.

Polly’s Yoga For Runners has been a lifesaver for me and if you haven’t done it you really should. I am awful at stretching before and after a run, so I’m trying really hard to make more of an effort to do so. If anyone has any good resources or tips for stretching, I’d love to see them!