Half Marathon Training, Between Week 4 and 5

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: 6 mile run + yoga

Check, and check.   Run was good, I felt crappy at the beginning it, but felt better by the end.  I love those runs.  I still find that doing yoga in the morning is the only way I can really tolerate it, really like it even.

Tuesday: yoga and 35 minute tempo run (5 mins jog, 25 mins hard run, 5 mins jog)

Check and check.  Did the yoga before work and hit the gym to do the tempo run since it was hotter than a frying pan outside.

Wednesday: DDR and yoga

Check and check.  Did this before work since I wasn’t sure what sort of crazy work was going to throw at me and ended up actually getting off on time, so it was a nice night.

Thursday: weights and 3.5 mile run

Not check and not check.  There is one day of the month where it takes all my mental mettle to get my fatigued and crampy ass off the couch, but I usually do it.  This day, however, I was woken up with said pains at like 3 am and couldn’t fall back asleep until almost 6.  So after 4 hours of broken up sleep on top of regular ol’ fatigue – I figured working out would do more harm than good.  I ate pizza and sat on the couch and vegged.

Friday: Rest!

Not check, but appropriately so.  Since I skipped all of Thursday’s workout, I just felt like I needed to not go from Wednesday to Saturday without a run.  I did an easy 3 mile and felt good.  I did totally skip the weight session though, which meant no weights all week.

Saturday: Race and Biking Adventure

I’ll cover the race more tomorrow, but let me just say – uh, hells yeah.  Then later, we did a slightly shorter 15 mile round trip bike ride to a co-worker’s house to play poker.  Spark says I burnt over 2000 calories this day.  Good thing, because I ate like 3000+.  Funny how the body just takes over and says “Nuh uh, girlfriend, we are eating a LOT when I expend a lot.”  Good for it!

Sunday: Rest.

Check.  Oh hell yah.  I got groceries and did laundry.  The rest of the day I spent within 10 feet or less of the couch.

Total week 4 mileage (running):  18.7 (plus about a mile of walking)
Total week 4 mileage biking: 15

Week 5?  Let’s do it!  Races are done, now it’s time to start going the distance…

Monday: 4 mile run and weights at the gym

Tuesday: yoga and 7×400 sprints (sprint 1 lap around the track, jog one lap, rinse and repeat)

Wednesday: yoga and 40 mins of DDR

Thursday: 4 mile run and weights at home

Friday: 7 mile run (and I think this might be the first time I use the gel/moons/beans etc)

Saturday: Bike Adventure

Sunday: Rest

Things I learned last week:

1.  Sometimes an unplanned rest day is the best thing for you.  I thought it was just going to decimate my ability to perform in the race but I think it did me a lot more good than if I pushed through my exhausted day.  And I think a short easy run the day before the race was better than resting.  Nothing hard enough to make me sore, but just enough to keep the muscles loose.

2.  Let’s hope I still feel the same way next week, but skipping weights twice is not the end of the world.  I think I’ll skip the weights the week of the half marathon too.  My muscles felt more…rested.  Makes sense though.  I am also seeing that increasing distance later in the training = increasing time worked out and something might have to give.  Once I get to 5 mile short run days, weights might go to once per week.  I *DO* plan to go super weight heavy after I run this race, so it will all balance out in the grand scheme of things, eventually.

3.  I like 10ks better than 5ks.  Maybe I’ll like half marathons better than 10ks!  I usually feel like it takes me a mile or so to get into my groove, and for a 5k, that’s a third of the race!  For the 10k…well, I’ll talk more about it tomorrow.  But running the distance in a race was amazing.

4.  Some days you are really into it and it’s magical.  Some days you’re not into when you start, but you feel great when you get going, and you just have to thank yourself for having the drive to get up off the couch and the faith that doing is better than not doing.  Some days, you’re not into it and you just have to power through and it doesn’t get better, but it does end.  Those days are few and far between though, and if they’re not, you’re probably doing something wrong.

5.  This week (5) starts the shift into expanding my comfort zone.  4+ miles as my short runs is going to take a head shift.  I run 7 miles as my long run this week, and that’s half a mile longer than I’ve ran before – which is probably not terribly significant and I’ll be fine.  But what’s eating the back of my head is next week is 8 miles.  That seems a lot longer.  I mean, it’s gotta happen if I want to do 13.1, but I usually run a distance quite a few times before I stretch further.  However, I am assured by many sources that the extra distance just sort of comes naturally and I could actually hurt my body training the way that feels right (tons of long rons, practice makes perfect, right).  We shall see.  All I can do is map the routes, put on my shoes, and see what I can do.