This week’s Marathons+Moderation guest post comes from the amazing Taylor, who trained for a marathon in more difficult conditions than I can even imagine! Not only did she train while volunteering with the Peace Corps, but she also did it while serving in Paraguay.  Be sure to click over to her blog to learn more about her experience in Paraguay!

The Peace Corps has three official goals:

1. Helping the people of interested countries in meeting their need for trained men and women.

2. Helping promote a better understanding of Americans on the part of the peoples served.

3. Helping promote a better understanding of other peoples on the part of Americans.

Those three goals are the best way to describe my job as a Peace Corps volunteer, however most volunteers also come to service with a "4th Goal," a personal goal the volunteer hopes to achieve during their service. From reading over 100 books during their time served, to learning the guitar, these goals are diverse. In my case, I got it into my head I was going to train for and complete my first marathon while serving in Paraguay. While I’m happy to report that I achieved my 4th goal last August, I think like most marathon novices I had absolutely no idea what I had gotten myself into. Compound that with trying to navigate life in rural Paraguay and it was quite the journey.

Life in a developing country is exciting, but at times it’s also just weird. When in a new culture, things don’t always make sense, and that brings a degree of stress. Being active has always been my stress outlet, but when confronted with the reality that there was no local Yoga studio or climbing gym, I knew I had to turn to running as my activity of choice. Life is slower here in Paraguay, so I figured clocking the miles would fill my free time and keep me occupied, but like all marathoners time and motivation were major challenges.

While I was in my town I had enough free time to get in my miles, but part of life in Peace Corps Paraguay requires frequent travel for work, cultural events, medical, and friendly visits. As I started getting higher in mileage it became increasingly difficult to manage. That’s a large part of the reason I went with timed runs rather than mileage when creating my workouts. Instead of a set number of miles to complete, I would have a time goal. 1 hour run, 2 hour run, ect. Furthermore, without access to reliable maps making longer routes was near impossible. If I were visiting a friend, I would literally ask them to point me down a long dirt road and just run out and back. Maybe it’s not the most fun run, but it allowed me to keep up my training no matter where I was. (To be honest the long run into the country side and back provided beautiful views and allowed me to see more of the country than I otherwise would have.)

With long dirt roads, I became a complete slave to the weather. Heavy rains would make the roads impassible until they dried out. Sometimes at the first hint of rain I would drop everything and squeeze in a run just because I knew I wouldn’t have another chance for a few days.

While in the winter it’s the rain I had to battle in the summer it was the oppressive heat. I swear the sun is closer to the earth down here. For long summer runs 4:30 am wake ups were required to get a good run in before it was too hot to do anything. While it would be cool enough during this time of morning, the street dogs didn’t take kindly to a person running through their territory during the pre-dawn hours. On more than one occasion I had to fend off packs of dogs before finally learning which streets were safe. Then there was explaining to my local friends and neighbors exactly why I running in the first place. People would ask if I were training for the Olympics. They just couldn’t understand that I was doing this for fun. Even after everyone knows that I ran a marathon, they still are in awe that I’ll run for 30 minutes without stopping.

I really didn’t think motivation would be so hard. I figured I’d be working out anyways, but marathon training is a different beast. Not only was getting the motivation to run every day grueling, but just the total stress of living in foreign country was starting to get the best of me. I was tired of strange looks and cat calls from locals as I ran. I had started throwing rocks at dogs, which while necessary at times, never makes you feel good, and knowing that a long run would perhaps be the only thing I would do that day, made lacing up even less appealing.

To combat my lethargy, I made a inspiration poster out of butcher paper on which I would write PRs, and inspirational sayings to try to keep going. It became a great place to remind myself of how far I had come. I must say however, the best motivator was family and friends both here and back home. Locals started to recognize me, and started cheering me when I would pass rather than leer. People from the US sent me quality socks and new running shorts, a book about marathon training, and energy chews. And every time I was on the phone with a friend at home or in Paraguay, they all wanted to hear how the training was going. It made me feel like I had to get my runs in our I would have nothing to tell them.

When the race finally came, I knew I had already achieved my 4th goal no matter the outcome. I didn’t run the whole way, having to start walking at kilometer 35. But even then my great network of volunteer friends were the support I needed to finish. They found me handed me a cup of terrere, Paraguay’s typical cold herbal tea, and walked the final stretch with me, delivering a cold beer at the finish line.

I was the last person to cross the finish that day, but after all the work I sure as hell felt like a winner.

Good morning from chilly Vermont.

Unfortunately the weather is just above freezing so the snow is melting and last night we received a little rain instead of snow. While I’d love to enjoy a dreamy, White Christmas in Vermont this year who knows whether it’s in the cards. Instead, I’m just excited to enjoy cold temperatures and plenty of time in front of the fireplace.

This morning’s Marathons+Moderation guest post comes from Shannon, who is currently balancing college and training for endurance events such as triathlons and marathons! I think that seeing the way a college student balances long runs and the other aspects of training provides some great ideas for those runners who think they are “too busy” to train for a marathon (edited to say those runners who need some help finding time to train for a marathon! I hope you all enjoy!

Hi everyone! I’m Shannon and I blog at Mon Amour about my life as a college student training for endurance running and triathlon events.

I started running in April 2011, run my first half marathon in October of that same year, and ran my first marathon this past November. Running is still really new for me and I am constantly trying to learn new things to improve my training. When I trained for my first two half marathons the longest run I did was only 7 miles. There were weeks when I only ran once or twice. I signed up to run the NYC Marathon in April and vowed to follow a strict training plan and really dedicate myself to training. I trained really hard over the summer but was overwhelmed when school started back up. I was suddenly spending all my time either at class or studying and doing homework at the library. Those first few weeks back at school my training really suffered. I realized that being a college student didn’t mean that I had to give up my dream of running a marathon but rather I needed to find a new way to train. Most training plans are not very flexible and are difficult to change.

I decided to change my entire approach to training and stop trying just do whatever else is doing. Instead of planning out the entire training plan months in advance I focused more on tackling each week as it came. I took a blank calendar and wrote weekly long runs but nothing else. I ran 4 days a week but didn’t pick which days until I had a better idea of what I had going on each week. As a college student things are constantly popping up and I may have one week with hardly any work due and others where I am completely swamped and hardly have time to eat. On a schedule like this I found that what works best is to look at the syllabus for each class at the beginning of the semester and make note of the extra busy weeks. Instead of trying to put in a hard week of training during midterms I plan for a cutback week so I can focus on school and not end up missing a lot of training.

Let’s be serious, a big part of college is going out and having a social life. It can be really difficult to wake up early for a weekend long run when you go out Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights. One option is to choose one night not to go out so you can get your long run in. Or you could take advantage of being able to choose your schedule and plan your classes so you can do your long run on a weekday. I personally have off Fridays so I do my long run on Friday morning. I have also done long runs on Mondays since I don’t have class until 2:30. They key to fitting marathon training into a college schedule is to be creative and take advantage of the one time in your life when you have so much flexibility. This is also a good thing to consider for people who work jobs with odd hours, such as nurses or stay at home moms.

This last tip is more specific to college students but it still relevant to anyone training for a marathon or just wanting to lead a healthy lifestyle. My first two years of college I purchased a meal plan so I wouldn’t have to worry about going to the grocery store every week and finding time to cook my own meals. This worked well while I was in Pittsburgh except that I ended up gaining 5-10 pounds thanks to the all you eat cafeterias. Once I transferred and moved off campus I found myself going to the grocery store about once a week anyway. This is the first year that I haven’t had any type of meal plan and I like it so much better. Not only am I saving money, but I am in complete control of what I am eating. I eat lunch on campus on Wednesday’s but every other meal I eat at my apartment. It takes a little more time to prepare all of my meals but it is worth it to have home cooked healthy meals instead of gross cafeteria food.

Your turn! Have you ever done your long run on a week day to fit it in your schedule? Do you tackle training on a weekly basis or as a whole plan?