I did not take a picture for this post this week, but luckily I took a lot of pictures early Monday morning of my light-up night gear and the full moon.

First of all, let me remind you that I wrote this early in the week.

Thursday night I left for the Reach the Beach relay. We began early Friday morning, and I ran a total of four legs on Friday and Saturday.

So this post will cover the early part of the week, and then I’ll update it with the total mileage for posterity’s sake after the fact, and then I’ll definitely be writing about how I did during the relay either Monday or Tuesday.

So, why don’t we just start with the week, with what I expect to happen on Friday and Saturday:

Monday: 4 miles, 11:11/mi

Tuesday: Strength - did a 5 minute core workout, 10 minutes of upper body, and then 10 minutes of lower body

Wednesday: I decided not to do my interval running scheduled for today - the mountainous racing I have this weekend seemed like an easier day was called for. I did another 10-minute lower body workout and then a 4 mile run at 10:22/mi.

Thursday: I had scheduled nothing on this day because we were traveling for the race.

Friday: Scheduled to run a 1.8-mile leg at around 10:30am and a 10-mile leg a little after noon. Both are supposed to be steep.

Saturday: Scheduled to run 4.2 miles at a little after 1am, then 2.9 just before 2pm.

My plan had 4 miles on Friday and 16 for the long run on Saturday for this week…so basically the total mileage is coming out rather even.

So, not a ton to report on but I’ll tell you this:

I’ve been feeling really strong this training cycle. Not just physically strong, like muscles, but healthy.

I’m nervous writing this because I don’t want to do anything to jinx it, especially since I’m running in the mountains and sitting in a van for hours all weekend and that’s not a recipe for staying in peak shape.

But it’s been really encouraging because I’ve often had little nagging things that may or may not have impacted my marathons.

The last time I ran Chicago, two years ago, I had a little tweak in my groin that started barking as the distances built up. On race day I had to stop a few times to stretch it out.

My hips bothered me the first few marathons I ran - I changed my stretching routine to address those problems and that really seems to have worked.

New York City was pretty good, but I had that plantar fasciitis situation that was mildly affecting my foot. (It wasn’t a problem during the race, but it was a big problem before and after the race.)

Resting my foot for the month-plus after New York City helped that go away.

Foot problems have plagued me over the past couple of years in various forms…but I think these New Balances I am currently wearing have helped a bunch.

Because right now…nothing.

Which is great - but we’re still a month away.

So I guess I’ll credit the recovery I’ve been doing - staying off my feet, using the compression boots, sometimes soaking my feet after a run, always getting my shoes and socks off immediately after a long run, drinking my Muscle Milk, and so on.

This weekend is kind of the last big hurdle of unusual activity - I’ll certainly do my best to make sure I’m not hurting myself while trying to be competitive.

The goal is to make it through without anything hurting (injury-wise…I don’t expect to escape the hills unscathed in terms of soreness)…and healthy. I keep wondering what it’s going to be like in the van - if one person is sick, forget about it. Combine that with a lack of sleep? That seems germy.

But I’ll be optimistic.

And when I get home on Sunday I don’t plan to do a thing besides sit with my feet up and recover.