Time for an update! We began our training for the NYC marathon 5 weeks ago yesterday. Since then I’ve experienced issues with both ankles and my piriformis muscle (right butt muscle) and Carl has experienced a hip problem that sidelined him for a week. All seems to be well now, though, and I feel like we are well into our training and making progress toward our goal of finishing the NYC marathon happy and with energy to spare.

I’ve ran 92.75 miles since I declared we’d begun, topping of this week with a total of 18 miles. I feel good. Tired, but good, and not as tired as I’m going to feel in the very near future. We’ve got one more “easy week” and then we start our speed work and our runs get longer and longer, and our weekly mileage gets higher and higher. I’m ready. I feel strong.

Yoga is still my strength training, and it is a very hard weekly workout for me. Both yoga and the runs are a combination of physical and mental exercise. It’s hard for me to explain. In yoga, as much physical strength as many of the poses require, there is an element of mental strength necessary to not just get into a pose, but to stay there. We do a lot of “vision questing,” that is, seeing ourselves in the pose, seeing my foot go to where it is supposed to before it does, with strength and grace. That’s not to say I never fall on my face! I do.

The same goes for running. It is as much mental as it is physical. If I let my mind tell me that I can’t, or it’s impossible, then there is no question that it will be. Tell myself I can do it, and I most likely can. See myself at the end, done, finished. It doesn’t mean I don’t bonk, hit the wall, want to quit – particularly in this summer heat and humidity. But if I believe I can hit a pose that seems crazy, or that I can finish a run strong, then I most likely can, and in both cases I’ve just done more than I think I am capable of.

You are I are always stronger than we think we are.