Half Training Update

Oh, hey there! I’m really late with my second post this week, and I probably will only have sporadic posts for the next few weeks. I have yet another photo project that I’m working on, and I’m actually getting paid (a little!) for this one, so I need to use my spare time to focus on that.

I thought I would take sone time to talk about how my half marathon training is going. I’m in week seven, and after last week’s step-back week, it was back to full-force training come Monday morning. First up was a 45-minute run. It was pretty windy, so I went in a different direction than I normally run. It forced me into the wind on the way out, but then I had an awesome tailwind on the way back.

The following day was my speed work day.  I had to do six intervals of three minutes hard (8:00-8:37 for me) and two minutes easy. I didn’t want to do them AT ALL, but not only did I have to do them, I had to get up earlier than normal because of Jamie’s orthodontist appointment!

The first 3 intervals going out were into the wind, and that was rough. I just kept telling myself that it was ONLY 3 minutes, but then again, the last time I did “hard” intervals, it was only 2 minutes! 😛 I walked exactly half of each recovery before jogging.

I’m actually surprised that my two fastest intervals were 2 and 3–both into the wind! I thought that last one would be better, because I really made an effort to go as “all out” as I could for the three minutes, but it was only my 4th best…guess I was tired by that time! 😛 As much as I dreaded them, I felt so great when I was done!

Wednesday was a 45-minute run, easy. Unfortunately, it was a bit icy (to my surprise), so I started out slow, but I picked up speed as I got my footing.

Friday was another one I was not looking forward to, since Jamie’s team had a hockey game Thursday night. (They won!) I didn’t get home until 10, and the run was 55 minutes, which meant 5 miles for me. That means I get up at 4:30! It was a little windy, but I actually had a really good run.

I’ve been pretty pleased with my easy runs being in the 10:30 to 11:00 range. If I were using heart rate training, that wouldn’t technically be considered “easy,” but it’s definitely not hard, and it just makes me feel good when I’m done.

So after all that running, then came today’s run. Saturdays are my “long easy run” days. Only today, according to Katie’s schedule, it was more like an interval run?! It’s basically 2 miles easy, and then 8 miles worth of quarter-mile tempo/three-quarter mile easy, and then a mile cool down. (Tempo for me is 9:00-9:30.) I was going to do it solo, because it just seems like such an odd workout that I didn’t think my friends would want to join in, but two of the three were game. (The third had an 8 AM basketball game and couldn’t make the logistics work.) We met up at 6:30, which is actually late for us, ha ha! I was able to get a picture of the sun just peeking up over the horizon by the lake on my way to meet them.

We did an out and back on some local biking trails, and the sunrise was really beautiful, although marred by the powerlines.

Doing 8 miles of quarter-mile/three-quarter mile repeats was really different. OK, I’m not going to lie: I didn’t like it. Not at all. 😛 I think it was the fact that I was running this slightly faster pace while trying to hold conversations with my friends. My cardiovascular endurance just isn’t developed enough yet to have lengthy conversations while running faster than a slow jog. As we were finishing the last interval, I mentioned to my friends that I really hated the work out. To my surprise, they both thought it was great! 🙂 The reality is, they’re both faster than me, so a quarter-mile at my tempo pace wasn’t too taxing for them. They both indicated that they enjoyed having only a quarter-mile to run at that pace and then a nice three-quarter mile break. I did make them walk the first minute or so of each recovery split, because dammit, I needed that break! 😉

As far as the tempo intervals, I kept up with them as best as I could, but as we finished the last couple of intervals, I was getting tired, and they ended up ahead of me.

Our last interval was a true work out: the final quarter mile at tempo was up a hill over the freeway!

When we were done, although I was tired, I felt really good. With Ann and Jen pushing me, my 11-mile run turned out to be a pretty good pace for me:

So, I have to admit, although I didn’t exactly love the run, I did enjoy the results (991 calories and 21 Fit Points!), and I especially enjoyed being able to run with my friends.

Love my early-morning running buddies. <3 We missed Toddra, though!

Afterwards, I went home and worked on pictures, but I had to take a break in the afternoon, because it was 66 degrees! In February! In Michigan! Even though I had already run 11 miles, I still went out and biked 5 miles on this beautiful day!

Hope you had a great day wherever you are! Thanks for reading!