I just ran 13 miles as part of my training for my second marathon. Last marathon was 4 years ago, before having kid(s). I had hoped for this marathon to do it faster, but I have *not* been going fast enough on my training runs to hit the under 4 hour pace I wanted for the October race. At this point I’ll certainly be happy to finish, but will be doing all I can to hit the faster pace.
The hardest part of training so far has been blisters. I’ve been trying to break in a couple new pairs of shoes, but have given up on one pair after months of thinking they were almost broken in and fallen back to an older pair. I’ve been using moleskin and bandaids made for blisters, but the only thing that has seemed to work very well has been duct tape. The other stuff just doesn’t stick well enough with all the sweat I get in my shoe, and I can cheaply tear off big pieces of duct tape that wrap enough foot to stay put. I’ve also taken to carrying a change of socks in my running backpack and using some foot powder to make the sweat less of an issue.
Besides the blisters, my feet are also the body part that is the most tired after long runs. My legs get a little sore from time to time, but so far my feet are the limiting factor. I’ll keep experimenting with different shoes to see what helps. I was doing some of my shorter runs in my Vibram Five Finger shoes, but as the runs have gotten longer those shoes don’t really cut it for me. Those shoes might be good for getting stronger feet, but you really have to work up to using them for distances as they really give your feet a workout.
Another thing different from my last training is I’ve begun carrying Gu Energy Gels with me for long runs and taking one every 45ish minutes. This has helped a lot. I avoided these last time because I had a bad experience with some kind of gel during a race that left me parched. You really need water with some of these things, but since I carry water with me on long runs that’s not an issue, and they really help keep energy up during and after the long run.
I wasn’t sure after finishing one marathon that I’d ever want to do another, but having a goal to shoot toward makes exercising a lot more palatable, and since I’ve been working from home most of the time lately I don’t even bike to the office, so needed something to shoot for to get me moving. Organized sports and anything with a schedule is too hard to stick to if I want to spend time with my family, so marathon training is nice since I can do it early morning (rare) or late night after Geneveve goes to bed.