I’m just three days away from one of the biggest days of my life. A day I’ve been anticipating for 18 weeks, 404 miles and about 137 hours of training. The cliché reaction would be to say, “The past four months flew by.” But they didn’t. The past four months of my life were difficult, unforgiving and long as hell.

I made mistakes, I suffered the consequences, I learned, I overcame and I adjusted. People have said, “I bet you learned so much about yourself throughout this process.” I don’t know if my learning curve was quite so sophisticated, but I do know I learned one thing: how not to train for a marathon. So in honor of my very last week of training and in consideration of my many injuries, I will be sharing my greatest takeaways from marathon training.

As a disclaimer: these takeaways are extremely specific to my journey and my body. Everyone’s body has different boundaries — some professional runners are able to run 100 miles a week without getting injured, and other people might find it extremely challenging to run just 10 miles a week. This column is simply about what has worked for me, so if you read this and think I’m wrong, crazy or that I suck at running, just remember that we’re all different.

Lesson #1: You don’t need to run so much

Now that we’re on the topic of weekly mileage, let’s talk about mine. I started out my training block with a schedule of four runs and two weightlifting sessions a week. But four days of running was too much for my body and six weeks into that schedule, I got injured. After rehabbing, I adjusted my schedule and switched out one of my runs for a swim workout. I might not know everything about marathon training, but I do know that every runner could benefit from getting in the pool.

After I cut down the number of times I was running a week, I slowly began to cut back on mileage within my running sessions. In my original and unresearched training plan, my highest weekly mileage was set to be 47 miles — a nine and 11-mile “easy run,” a three-mile speed run and a 24-mile long run. Those numbers are absolutely preposterous for someone who is simply trying to finish a marathon. If you’re going for speed and have a specific time goal, high mileage might be in your cards, but this rookie runner did not need to be doing all of that.

I’ll admit, cutting back on mileage was less by choice and more by necessity due to my injuries. But if I hadn’t cut back, I doubt I would’ve ever even made it to the start line. My highest weekly mileage ended up being 33 miles — a six and five-mile easy run and a 22-mile long run — I would call that a successful week.

Next time I train for a marathon — yes, there will probably be a next time in the distant future — I’ll make a rough training plan outline to follow and then adjust it weekly based on how I’m feeling. I was extremely rigid with my training plan in the beginning and it caused me to get injured multiple times because I wasn’t listening to my body.

The past month of training is a better example of what I should have been doing all along, which is training intuitively and adjusting my plan according to how I’m feeling. This strategy has felt more relaxed and just as, if not more, effective in making progress toward my goal. There’s been days that I’ve dialed back on mileage, substituted a run for an extra swim or, if absolutely necessary, skipped the workout altogether. All of those decisions had a more positive impact on my progress than toughing out the original plan would have. This brings us to lesson #2.

Lesson #2: If it hurts, stop

I’m a logical person. I know that a few miles in the grand scheme of four months of training won’t make a difference in my fitness level. But I’m also a stubborn person, and when I make a plan, I stick to it.

I can tell you the exact dates of when my two injuries started because I can recall so vividly realizing something was wrong and then pushing through anyway just to get the workout done. When I injured my toe, I felt the pain creep in on mile eight of a 16-mile run, and when I injured my hip, I felt it on mile one out of eight. I woke up the morning after both of those runs barely able to walk.

I’m not sure that I could’ve avoided my injuries if I’d stopped when the pain started, but I’m pretty sure they wouldn’t have been as bad, and I’m absolutely positive finishing those two runs didn’t benefit my fitness nearly enough to warrant pushing through the pain.

I’m not very proud of those two moments when my injuries first started, but I’m extremely proud of how I then handled my injuries — with ice, cross training and several trips to the doctor. Of the 18 weeks I’ve spent training, five of them have been rehab weeks. I was anxious that after a week or two off running, I would end up back at square one, but I quickly realized that rehabbing doesn’t erase my progress, it simply pauses it.

During my rehab weeks, I dedicated myself to cross training and ended up putting in the same amount of hours of endurance training that I would have if I’d been able to run. Thanks to the rec center pool, I didn’t lose any fitness during my weeks off of running and was able to start out where I left off with my training once I had eased out of rehab. Had I known this before, I would’ve avoided about half of the mental anguish and anxiety I suffered.

As an added bonus, I also discovered that I love swimming and could learn to love biking. Being injured as a runner is basically just a gateway to triathlon, so I’m excited to announce that I will be doing my first triathlon in June!

Lesson #3: You can’t do everything and running shouldn’t be your everything

I recognize the irony in placing this lesson directly after announcing that I’ll be jumping into triathlon training the moment the marathon is over. I guess it’s safe to say I haven’t actually learned this lesson yet.

Marathon training is a huge time commitment. Outside of the 10 plus hours of training every week, you also have to factor in recovery time — the eight hours of sleep you need every night and all the time it takes to cook and eat enough to keep up with the calories you burn. All of this is manageable, but for me, marathon training became overwhelming because I became obsessed.

Everything I did for four months revolved around running — all of the conversations I had were about running, I was reading books about running, watching movies about running and looking at social media posts about running. My world became very small, and because I was so invested, I was also terribly anxious that something would go wrong and stop me from finishing.

If I were to do it all again, I would make a greater effort to have balance and prioritize having separation between my training life and my personal life. That being said, next time I would like to actually have a personal life. With all the time I’ve been pouring into running, something had to give, and I ended up sacrificing my social life.

Honestly, obsession aside, when you’re a full-time student working two jobs and training for a marathon, hanging out with your friends is pretty impossible. Because I work all day on Sunday and commit my Saturdays to my long run and writing my column, I don’t have a weekend, and I’m busy pretty much all day, everyday. So when I get home and have a few hours of free time, all I want to do is rest.

On one hand, I’m too exhausted to make an effort to see my friends. But on the other hand, I’m really struggling with being alone all the time. If I can offer any advice, it would be don’t train for a marathon when you’re already juggling a million other things. Just don’t. And if you find yourself having to make sacrifices for running, you have to ask yourself, is it worth it?

My answer: yes. This lifestyle change was only temporary, so I’m not saying I regret it and that it ruined my life. I’m saying I would do it differently next time. But there were also so many things I did do right and I feel I should commend myself for that. So let’s roll out the red carpet for all of my little victories.

For one, I’m proud that I took care of myself and was so diligent about going to the doctor, especially considering that I’m notoriously terrible about going to the doctor. I’m proud that I fixed my sleep schedule and got eight hours each night. I’m proud that I fueled properly and focused this journey on how I feel rather than how I look. I’m proud of my body for how capable and strong it is. I’m proud of how many times I pushed through and got my workout done on the days I wasn’t motivated. And above all else, I’m proud that I made it this far when there were so many reasons to give up.