I'm in Jamaica today where we will be hiking a waterfall! Hiking is awesome cross training, which is an important part of any training plan.

And that leads me to today's guest blogger (Sorry for the uber-lame segue): Amber from Girl with the Red Hair! Amber recently registered for her very first marathon! Welcome Amber!

Hi there! It’s Amber from Girl with the Red Hair guest blogging for Jess
today while she’s on vacation!

I’ve been a runner for just over a year now, in 2009 I ran three
half-marathons and a handful of other small races and in October of 2010 I
will be running my first full marathon in Portland, Oregon. I’m really
excited about it.

Currently, I’m training for a half-marathon at the end of March that I’m
hoping to run in under two hours. My PR so far is 2:01:40.

You know the runner’s high that everyone talks about? Ya, I love that, it
keeps me running and it keeps me going. But I think more so than anything,
the “training high” is what truly pushes me to run more, run harder, run
faster.

Clearly, I LOVE to train for races as I only started running just over a
year ago and I’ve already completed six races. I just love having a
training plan taped to my fridge, I love the feeling of crossing a workout
off when it’s done. I love getting faster and stronger every week and
increasing my mileage. I love all of that more than just the “runner’s
high” and honestly, if I didn’t train for races I’d probably never have
become a runner.

See, I tried to run in the past. And I hated it. Of course I was doing it
all wrong. Bad shoes, bad form, not taking enough walking breaks when I
was just a beginner; all the normal rookie mistakes.

But when I signed up – actually gave them my credit card number and paid
the $80 signed up – for the Vancouver half-marathon last spring, I knew I
was in it for the long haul so I better learn to run, and like it.

So I did. It took about two months before I really, truly fell in love
with running, but now I can’t imagine my life without it – or training for
races.
I can’t wait to TRAIN for the marathon.

Ya, running the marathon will be fun too. But I’m looking forward to the
early mornings, multiple double-digit runs and the overall dedication and
time commitment it takes. I’m looking forward to sore muscles and ice
baths. I’m looking forward to turning down invitations to events because,
you know, I’m training for a marathon.

But, most of all, I’m looking forward to crossing each and every training
run off of my colour-coded schedule that will be taped to my fridge.

That’s just my type-A personality shining through, I suppose.

So what about you, do you run because you love to run or do you run
because you love to train?