The Last One

Time for another half-marathon training update…and this is pretty much it, because the half is next weekend.  Wait…what?! 😮

It’s hard for me to believe that I’ve completed eleven weeks of training for this race.  It seems like just a minute ago I was handing Jamie the print out of my friend Katie’s “Finish Strong” half marathon training plan and asking him to do the math for me for a 2:08 finish.  (Why should I do the math when I have a 14-year-old who can do it for me! 😛 )  And yet, here I stand, one week and a day from race day, looking down the barrel of a step-back week.  I like that part, at least! 😉

In that eleven weeks, I have run 56 times (wow, really??), done 11 speed workouts, and run a total of 271 miles…go me! 😀  Other than the long runs, which included two 12-mile runs and one 11-mile run, I am most proud of my speed workouts.  If you look at Katie’s plan, you can see that there is one speed workout per week, and they are definitely workouts! I’d never done full-on sprints before this training cycle, and those were a real eye-opener.  Running below a 7:37 pace, even for only a minute or 90 seconds, was hard!  And in one instance (week 4), I had to do ten of those sprints…holy cripes!  By about the sixth one, I was so over it. 😛 But I did them all, and kept pace for every single one–I was so proud of that!

The remainder of the speed workouts were usually based around “hard” running, which for me is an 8:00-8:37 pace.  It started out early in the cycle as 2-minute hard intervals, but by the last one, it was 5-minute intervals, five times.  That was as “hard” as the name implies!  I’m happy to say that in 11 speed workouts, there were only 3 workouts when I did not hit all my paces, and even within those three, I can say that I hit my pace for at least half of the intervals in each one.  The deciding factor in each of those three “failed” workouts was wind, so although I know that’s no excuse (winds don’t automatically subside on race day!), I know I did my best, and that’s what counts.

I will say that, despite the wind and occasional snow, this particular training cycle was actually not so bad, weather-wise.  We’ve had a pretty mild winter, especially in February, when there were some runs when I was out in a t-shirt and still sweating! 😮 I think we’ve made up for a little in the last couple of weeks–I’ve had more snowy runs in the last two weeks than I think I had the previous nine, ha ha!

Today was the final long run of the cycle, and it was not the most enjoyable run by a long stretch. But, I had two of my three “runner girlfriends” with me, so that made it bearable!  It was nine miles, with the ninth to be done at “tempo pace” (9:00-9:30 for us).

We started out in the rain, and when Jen met us at Ann’s house (they live close to each other), she realized that it was more than just a light drizzle and knew she would need a coat.  We did a quick stop at her house to let her grab a jacket, and at that point, we actually contemplated the idea of skipping the run. Turns out that none of us enjoy running in the rain! 😛  I think left to our own devices, each of us would have said, “Forget it,” but there is accountability in numbers, and I don’t think any of us wanted to be the quitter!  😉

The rain wasn’t awful at first, but we had spurts of moderately heavy rain for the first half of our nine-mile run.  And the puddles! Oh, the puddles. 🙁  We all ended up with soaked feet (and everything else) by the end.  It was just so tough to avoid the standing water, especially as a group of three.  We had several spots where we had to come to a quick stop and walk to avoid some of the biggest puddles or to let traffic go by.  I don’t know that we ever actually had a “true” walk break that was by design; mostly we walked only when forced to.

After getting to the halfway point, as we headed back up toward home, the rain turned to sleet, and then it turned to snow–big, fat, heavy flakes of it!  The flakes were so large, I found myself blinded by them hitting me in the eye now and again. 😮 I took a few pics in the eighth mile.

Sorry it’s blurry, my fingers were numb!

The snow made the roads and sidewalks more treacherous, and although we’d agreed to do the final “tempo” mile at the start, we decided against it with 2 miles to go, because fast running with that kind of iffy footing was not a smart idea.  By the time we got back to Jen’s, we were all soaked through, and cold…good grief I was cold! We hit 9 miles at Jen’s, but I conned Ann into running back to her house (instead of walking) so we could get done faster, lol!  Here’s what it came out to:

All I can say is this run would not have happened for me without the company!  I am so very, very grateful and blessed to have found these awesome running friends!

Normally, they are not into the selfies like I am (narcissist, yep,  I totally own that, lol), but we all agreed that we totally earned the right to post a selfie on social media after that run! 😉 We were definitely missing our fourth, Toddra, but her schedule has been crazy this training cycle. We look forward to getting the whole gang back together in April!

While we were running, Jen (who pretty much lets me determine the plan and pace for our runs) asked me what our actual goal pace is for the race.  I had to admit that I had been thinking about that (and waffling over it) just that morning.  I had had Jamie calculate a 2:07:30 finish when determining our goal paces for Katie’s plan, because that would actually be a new PR for me (my current PR is 2:08:32).  But I can’t say that I’m totally committed to that finish.  Actually, the times when I’m least committed are when I’m running along at a 10:30-10:40 pace for an easy run and thinking that a 9:43 for 13 miles seems pretty damn near impossible. 😉

So I don’t know; we’ll see how things go next weekend.  However, there is this one other issue that I haven’t actually mentioned here on my blog which may have a big impact on my race day strategy: I may not actually be able to run the race. 😮  *sigh*  For weeks now, I’ve known that there might be a possibility that JJ could have a championship hockey game the morning of the Rock CF Half Marathon. 🙁  First though, they had to make it through the first round…and they did!  Which is great, but now we are at the mercy of the Little Caesar’s Amateur Hockey League, and they will not release the finals schedule until this coming Tuesday. :/  Even then, if they do schedule the championship game Sunday morning, I won’t know if JJ will be in it until after the quarter- and semi-final games on Friday and Saturday.

So, there may be a race-day registration in my future. 😮  I’m crossing my fingers that any championship game will be scheduled Sunday afternoon, because I certainly would like to see JJ’s team in a championship game, but at the same time, I really don’t want to waste 12 weeks of training! Still, as hard as I’ve worked for this half, I cannot possibly skip such an important game in his life.  I love my little hockey player and I know he will be pretty sad if I can’t be there.  (And I would be miserable if I wasn’t there with him!)

So that’s my half training update!  It’s been a good training cycle, and I’m (sort of) looking forward to race day.  Mostly, I’m looking forward to being done and going out for our traditional Bagger Dave’s dinner on Sunday night. 😉  I really should try to find something new, lol!

Thanks so much for reading!