Half Marathon Training, Between Week 3 and 4

If you’ve been following me here this shouldn’t be any surprise, but for the rest of you and for my posterity, here is how last week went:

Monday: 3.5 mile outside run + full body weights at home

Check, and check. Did the weights in the morning at home, and did the run outside after work.  In preperation for the 5k race I tried to run this pretty hard, and did 3.5 miles in 30 minutes.

Tuesday: yoga and 6×400 meter sprints (with a 400 meter jog in between each sprint)

Check and check.  Did the yoga before work and hit the track.  I like these speed days a lot!  I did all 6 sprints between 1:40 and 2 minutes, which is either under or up to a 8 minute mile pace, which is great!  What isn’t great is how tired I felt after each one.  I want to be able to hit that pace and have it feel like I can keep going.  Also, the sun was really beating down on me and I got a little burned, even though I wasn’t out that long.

Wednesday: 3.5 mile run and full body weights at the gym.

Check and check.  Did the run in the morning and went easy (I didn’t even time myself) and did the weights at night.  It was a 1 set to exhaustion day.  I still find that I have to set a goal for myself so I made sure I did at least 2 sets worth in a row.  I still very much love this weights workout and think it’s good for me.

Thursday: yoga + 35 minute DDR workout

Check and not check.  I was BEAT after 3 days of running in a row and had a previous engagement after work this day, so I just did the yoga.  I did however do the DDR on Saturday to make up for missing it this day though, so not a complete uncheck.

Friday: Race!

Check! I covered this yesterday, so all I will say is that I’m glad that I don’t melt…

Saturday: Rest

Check.  Well, minus the DDR.  And the trips to the buffet line.  And Wii bowling and tennis shopping for used tennis rackets.  So restful for me, I guess…

Sunday: Biking Adventure

Check. Burnt a lot of calories, spent a lot of time outside, and generally had an awesome day.  Biked 22 miles, and walked about a mile.

Total week 2 mileage (running): 13.85 (plus about two miles of walking)
Total week 2 mileage biking: 22

Week 4?  Geez, am I really a quarter of the way through this already?  Here’s this week’s plan:

Monday: 6 mile run outside, yoga

Tuesday: yoga and a 35 minute tempo run (5 minutes of jogging sandwiched around 25 minutes of hard running)

Wednesday: yoga and 35 mins of DDR

Thursday: 3.5 mile run and weights at the gym

Friday: Rest

Saturday: 10k race!  Possibly followed by a bike ride to the park if I’m not exhausted…

Sunday: Rest

Total week 3 mileage: 19.2 (plus whatever we do on the bike)

A little different due to the fact that my body essentially got worked over by the canoeing Sunday (so I skipped weights on Monday in favor of yoga) and I feel like I need a long run before my 10k this weekend since the race LAST weekend took the place of it.  Not that I’m extraordinarily nervous about being able to run 6.2 miles, I just want to run it once with my new stopwatch so I know what an easy pace is and make sure I push myself appropriately!

Things I learned last week:

1.  Beating my race time by 3 minutes might have been a bit ambitious.  I thought I got a lot better but ticking off a whole minute per mile is probably unrealistic.  As long as it’s a personal best, I think I get to be happy no matter what!

2.  4.5 hours of activity on a Sunday makes it really hard to get up on a Monday and do a long run, even if it’s moderate stuff like biking and canoeing.

3.  When you’re cursing yourself for not being able to beat the old dude on the track you’re pacing (he WAS hauling ass, I swear), remember to forgive yourself when you’re running mile 3 and he’s stopped after less than 1 keeled over and breathing heavy.  Some of us have endurance, some have speed, it’s all about the ability to put those together to go as far as you need as fast as you can and keep working to improve that.

4.  A large meal the night before a long/hard run = more energy to complete said long/hard run.  Just gotta make sure to not eat like crap all week so you’re body knows it’s getting a treat in exchange for a good performance.

5.  It’s nice to be expending so many calories with the training and biking so that I can eat how it feels a normal human being should be able to eat.  I am really looking forward to finally losing all the weight I want to someday and being able to continue being super active but also not worry about the quantity of food I can consume so much.  Considering the online calculators are telling me to “cut back” to around 2000 calories to lose a lb a week, and I’m generally consuming between 1500-2000 per day, I think I’m doing ok.  I just know I’m going to get used to this and it’s going to really hurt me in the taper phase to eat so much less!