Unplanned Half Marathon PR

Half marathon training has been a little bit up and down over the past month. In early October I was doing great, but the middle of the month was a bit tough due to work getting pretty stressful!

Only about 10 days out from the race now, and although I wish I had done a bit more training this month, I am still feeling prepared! I had one great long run a few weeks ago that definitely helped build my confidence going in to the race - I ran 13.1 miles (half marathon distance) faster than my time from the Dallas Half Marathon last year!

The run was originally scheduled to be 80 minutes at long run pace (typically 9:40-10:00 min/mile for me) and then 40 minutes at 'marathon pace', which essentially should be about 15-30 sec/mile slower than my planned half marathon pace - so around 8:45 min/mile.

The weather was so nice when we started the run (Sam was with me) that I got off to a faster start and ran the first few miles at a 9:15-9:20 pace. I think I was just really excited for it not to be so darn hot outside! And then I started thinking that if I ran the first 4 miles at 9:20, then 5 miles at 9:00, then 4 miles at 8:40, then I could beat my half marathon time from last year (9:04 min/mile average).

I didn't tell Sam what I was thinking until we were almost done with the run just in case I wimped out! The last few miles were tough but by that time I had put in multiple miles below 9 min so I wasn't going to be that close and not finish strong.

I can't wait until the weather cools off even more! I'm really glad I had that good run because the few weeks after weren't filled with too many miles. Hopefully the weather is just as nice or better for the race!

Back Again?

Hi all. Obviously it has been awhile! This summer was really busy in a fun way, but I also was totally kicked off of my routine - including blogging.  The thought of catching up on everything that has happened in the last 4 months is incredibly daunting, so I think I'll just pick up where things are today and sprinkle in some highlights from the summer (and some I still owe you guys from last spring) as I have time to get to them!

Anyway, after I finished my 1200 mile goal in June (yes, I did make it!), I took a bit of a running hiatus for a few weeks because 1) I had been running a lot and 2) it was soooo hot outside. Then in August I picked back up and started a half marathon training plan. I am signed up for a half marathon on November 8th in Port Arthur, which is just about 30 minutes from here so we won't have to travel which is nice!

The training plan I have been using is from the Garmin training website and basically I am using it out of convenience - all of the runs are time-based durations/intervals and I can download them directly to my watch which is great! The basic scheme of the training plan is:

M - rest
T - intervals
W - easy run
T - intervals or hard run
F - rest
S - random - some weeks easy run, some weeks hard
S - long run

There are also extra 30 minute recovery runs in the mornings on Tue/Thu in the plan, but I haven't been doing those because we all know I am not a morning person :) And I don't think I need that many miles anyway.

It has still been really hot out, but hopefully will cool down in the next few weeks! The interesting thing about the runs being based on time, and not distance, is that I usually don't realize how far I have gone until I look at my watch. Today's run was a good example - 15 minutes at easy pace, 15 minutes at race pace, 4 intervals at 10k pace with rest in between, then 15 minutes at race pace.

Somehow that turned into 8 miles - a pretty long run for a weekday! But since I was just running for time, I didn't pysch myself out beforehand like I would have if I had thought I was setting out to run 8 miles!

Other than running, my weight maintenance is going okay. I am up about 5-6 pounds over the summer. We did lots of traveling, which usually meant bad eating, which also meant I was more likely to eat bad even when we were home! But I'm hoping to be back down to 130 before the holidays.

Anyway, time to shower and get to bed! Hope you are all doing well.