I run quite a bit these days.

This blog does not accurately reflect the enormous amount of time I spend running. And because one of this blog's major purposes is to keep a record of my goings on, I want to jot down what I have been doing lately in the running department. This is probably not interesting to most of my readers, and to make matters worse, there is no picture of my child. So, I'm sorry about that. I just don't want future Rachel to forget about all the running that occurred. Future Rachel, you ran a LOT in 2010. And in 2009.

I'm currently training for the Pittsburgh Marathon which is May 2nd. I plan on kicking its hilly butt. It's my fifth marathon and the third marathon that I have trained seriously for. I realllly want to qualify for Boston, which is running a 3:40. I've finished in 3:47 twice but have trained better this time around. I ran 82% of the Charlottesville marathon (which is about 21.5 miles) last weekend with my friend Jenni, and I feel optimistic about my chances of qualifying.

I better qualify. I want to stop running and take naps after school. But I don't like giving up. (The back up plan is to run some marathon in the fall if I don't qualify.)

Some running stats...

• I run about 32 miles a week since Christmas.
  
• Since I started keeping track here, I've burned 276 donuts. Impressive, no?
• I've run .02 around the world.
• For this marathon, I ran 20 miles twice and 21 once.
• I ran a half marathon with 7:47 splits as part of my training.
  

Here's my ideal running schedule for a week. (It rarely happens.)

• Monday: swim for an hour after Finley goes to bed
• Tuesday: run 5 miles after school
• Wednesday: run up to 10 miles... sometimes on the treadmill at the gym after Finley's asleep, sometimes broken up into two runs before and after bedtime
• Thursday: run up to 5 miles after school
• Friday: NO RUNNING!
• Saturday: run up to 20 miles (increasing 1 or 2 miles a week)
• Sunday: run up to 10 miles

Now doesn't that sound like fun? You know you want to start training for a marathon RIGHT NOW.