As I unlocked my boy Bruiser from the bike rack this morning and hoisted his bulky aluminum frame over my shoulders, I realized something.

I’m in the best part of marathon training right now.

Gone are the weeks where my long runs are still in the single digits. Don’t get me wrong, any run is still an accomplishment, but I found it hard getting excited for an 8-mile run. It was just long enough to feel long but not long enough to feel like I was really accomplishing something.

I wasn’t looking forward to training for this marathon when I started, but I was looking forward to the marathon itself. Over the past few weeks, as I crushed half-marathons and long runs, I started seeing my strength in a way you don’t see it in single-digit runs.

I look forward to my runs now. All of them. From the short three-milers to the long 20-milers that I know are coming soon, I’m excited. Each one of these runs has a purpose, and that is to prepare me for the NYC Marathon.

I realized that this morning as I cruised (by cruise, I mean pedaled as fast I could which is still not that fast) down the Hudson River Path and back for some cross-training. While triathlon training (and I use the word “training” very loosely to describe how I prepared), I would look at the runners on the path and be so glad to be biking. Today, it was the other way around.

Or maybe I’m still riding that post-PR glow.

What is your favorite part of race training? The beginning, the middle, or the taper? (If you say taper, you’re crazy. That’s the most stressful part of any race.) Also, what’s your favorite distance to run? I’m pretty sure mine is the half-marathon distance. But you knew that. My favorite short distance is 4. It’s a nice round number.