You are so strong. Look down at your legs and flex your quads and think about how hard you’ve worked up to this point. With 3-4 months of training behind us, we are now only days away from the Vermont City Marathon.

I was feeling waves of nerves and excitement up to this point, especially as I began to taper. With only 2 weeks to go, all I wanted to do was ease my mind by running harder, faster, and stronger. But that was the opposite. It was quite luxurious I’ll admit to drop my mileage and be able to fit in all my runs during the day or spontaneously in the morning before work. However, the first week of tapering was mentally and physically challenging for me. My body wasn’t used to feeling satisfied by shorter runs, but then again that’s what it needed. The importance of tapering is that your legs can relax and feel lighter before a race by allowing them to store carbohydrates and glycogen, your race day fuel.

The sun’s beaming, the snow’s softening, and it's finally time to shed those layers! I love the winter, but this time of year is so special. Everyone is ridiculously happy and we get to see blue sky’s multiple days in a row. It almost makes you want to scream, “We made it!”

With the change of seasons comes a change in how we dress while you are training for the Vermont City Marathon (or any adventure) in April . A great pro-tip would be to make sure that you keep a synthetic layer or wool and synthetic blend as your next-to-skin layer. This will help to wick moisture from your body, keep you dry, cool, happy, and out there for longer.

That being said, here are some of my new favorite pieces broken down by different scenarios.

1 month of consistent Vermont City Marathon training, and look where your feet have taken you! It’s pretty incredible to think about how many miles you’ve traveled, and how much your body has adapted, grown and experienced in this short period of time.

I set out on my 10 mile long run this past Saturday feeling a mixture of excitement and nervousness. It’s a big milestone, first double digit long run…goodbye single digits! As I had mentioned in my last post, this was the longest distance that I’d run before and let me tell you, it was night and day. With consistent training, proper nutrition and hydration, Clif blocks, and the right gear I shaved off 30 minutes from my time 2 years ago!

Most people wake up in the middle of the night because their mind is running a mile a minute. Two days after Christmas I woke up in the middle of the night because I realized that I wanted to run a mile every ten minutes, 26.2 times. At 12:06 am, on December 27th, I did what no one in my family ever thought I would do and signed up for the Vermont City Marathon.

Initially, I signed up because I simply wasn’t sure if I could run 26.2 miles. That’s a lot! I’m still not sure, but I’m curious about what my body can do. I’ve always loved spending the day crushing long distances on my bike, and once ran 10 miles on a whim, but in general the mental and physical challenges that come with long distance adventures excites me.