Beth RunningI’m running my first half marathon this Sunday, and I’ve been training all fall (since the big dump from the ex-boyfriend). I keep telling myself that “it’s only a half,” trying to not freak myself out about running 13.1 miles. My full marathon in June of last year should prove to me that I’ll be fine (but I’m still nervous).

When I talk about running either a full or a half marathon, people tend to assume that I have some kind of pudgy chick super powers. They think that to be able to run 26.2 miles in a race that you need to run long, long, long distances each week to train.

The key to training for a long-distance run is not running miles and miles every single day. Most days I don’t run for more than an hour at a time. Once a week I have what we marathoners (I love saying that) call a long run. We gradually increase the length of the long run throughout a training season until we’re pretty close to the mileage for the big day.

This means that running a marathon is not hard all the time. It’s really a slow, steady training process that keeps you chugging along until you can chug for 26.2 miles.

That’s what this business is like. Most days my life as a freelance writer is just not that difficult. I’m just increasing my mileage each week, each month, to set a pace that will keep me going all year long.

Sure, some days are really tough. Sometimes I look at a to do list and think that there’s no way I can get everything done. But then I realize that once I tackle project X or jump into task Y, my schedule will free up again. Then I’ll start chugging along and get back to a normal pace.