THIS IS IT.  THIS IS THE END.  well besides the actual race!  but we made it through THREE long months of me rambling on about how annoying training was!!

i'm super excited to give you a race rundown next week – but just know that i'm alive and well and still walking.  today we're talking about the last month of training!

i really appreciate you all going through this process with me, the good the bad & the ugly.

month 3 of training was WAY better than last month so let's get into it!

I tried to start out optimistic, given how the last run of month two ended up.  it was a good thing I did!  I had a really nice week of short runs for week 9.  nothing too fancy or exciting.  I invested in a hand held waterbottle which was a game changer and also purchased some energy gels to use during training.  the short runs were honestly pretty good.

I was really scared to go on a 11 mile run.  I won't beat around the bush I put it off and tried to avoid it as much as possible.  Frankie told me he was going to run it with me, which was a surprise.  he flat out was like “I'm not letting you stop because you'll be miserable and hate everything and I'm not dealing with your tude again.”  I told him I loved him too and we ran it together on Easter.  AND I DIDN'T STOP.  I was on cloud nine!  it was amazing!!

that takes us to week ten, where the short runs were nothing special.  I was pretty sore after the 11 mile run on Sunday so i pushed them off by a day.  nothing major happened on these runs, just going through the motions.  the saturday run was pretty decent too! i finally got to bump that run down to three miles which felt pretty good.  

the TWELVE MILER.  ugh. i did this one fully in central park and just felt like i was dying afterwards.  i did the two loops and had to stop multiple times.  it was a pretty awful run, but i didn't really let it discourage me too much.

i chalked it up to the central park situation and the fact that it was CRAZY cold and windy that day.  the walk home from the park was miserable and i was so tired.  long runs seem to wipe me out like no other.

week eleven was another one where i found myself pushing my short runs back because of soreness.  the problem with this week was that i went to north carolina with frankie to visit his parents.  we traveled on thursday so i knew i couldn't get a run in that day.  i ended up breaking it up to run on Wednesday and Friday and Saturday.

On Friday, frankie and his mom and sister and i all went out on a little trail by their new house and i ran my miles there.  it was nice and flat and warm! i was a little overheated by the end.

The six miler was pretty annoying because we got lost a bunch of times trying to find a path i saw online and then the path ended up being closed. we had to stop and look up directions approximatley 29385723985.2 times and i was just over it.  really, really over it.  which was upsetting because it was the last long run i would do before the race.

I also started using runkeeper that week and had some issues with the numbers it was giving me.  overall i'm still having issues with it (it shuts off on its own, the watch app isn't in tandem with the actual app, and other issues) so i'd LOVE any tips you guys might have for using it.

WEEK TWELVE was just a series of really good short runs!  it felt weird to have my mileage in the 3's but also really nice.  i was a fan if i'm being honest.

picking up my race bib on monday was pretty crazy.  it made everything feel MUCH more official and scary.  i was fretting about it pretty much all week.  but it was also so EXCITING!

my mom came in on Friday (she came to visit and see my race, so supportive!  love ya momma) and we walked alllll over the place all weekend.  on Saturday i ran two miles which was surreal, i remember when that would have been hard for me and now it feels like a baby run!  (also had an issue with runkeeper shutting off all together from my watch, luckily i run the route all the time so i knew it by heart)

overall, i think the month was a success.  if nothing else, i figured out my energy gel pacing/water strategy and that was a huge win.  i would take one anywhere from mile 4-6 depending on how i felt and follow up with water.  it seemed to work for me and i really didn't mind the GU tastes.  i bought the massive assorted pack which i really loved and recommend if you're dipping your toes into the energy gel world!

Stay tuned next week for a recap of the overall race and to hear what my plans are next!

xoxo @ashtonesup