Gretch Runs

This might be a weird title for a post of a running and training blog, but I was listening to the song by Florence + the Machine , and one line in the song stuck out to me: Run fast for your mother run fast for your father Run for your children for your sisters and brothers Leave all your love and your longing behind you Can't carry it with you if you want to survive This line really resonated for me. I feel like I'm no longer running just for my own satisfaction, but for all of my friends and family. They're all just as invested in my progress and training as much as I am, and truly motivate me every day to keep working hard. No longer am I just running fast for myself, but for everyone in my life as well. Running is also an extremely emotionally and physically intensive activity. To me, it's much more psychologically taxing than physically, and in order to do well I always have to leave all doubt or uncertainty behind in order to "survive" this process, and

" There are no shortcuts to any place worth going ." - Beverly Sills Happy (very belated) new year! I had an extremely hectic and crazy end of 2011/start of 2012. I took trips across the country and across the state, played in my very last football game, and had an amazing Christmas and New Year. In top of that, I was able to keep running and working out...maybe not as much as I'd like, but a substantial amount. Now that the marathon is right around the corner ( only 112 days away!! ) it's really time to kick my training up. Luckily, Penn State hasn't had a typically frigid winter until very recently, so my training has been great so far this year! I've been a bit slack on tracking my runs and have just enjoyed being outside and running for fun, but it's time to get a plan and track miles! My friend, idol and amazingly talented runner John sent me a great tool he uses to create customized training plans. It's from Runners World and can be found here .