Charlevoix Half Training - Week 2

Note: While I am referring to this as half marathon training, this is actually the start of marathon training. It is just easier for me to break it up into smaller segments: 7 weeks until Charleviox Half Marathon, 8 weeks until Crim 10 miler, 8 weeks until Grand Rapids Marathon.

Monday
Supplemental training: Core + Strength Training

Tuesday
rest day (taken from Wednesday)

Midway through work, my husband texted me to let me know that our friends from Duluth, MN were in town for the day and wanted to know if we wanted to meet up for drinks. Which, of course, yes! So that ruined my plans for an after work eight miler. Can't complain too much since they are going to let us stay with them when we run Grandma's Marathon in 2017 (we are planning on crossing New York and Oregon off of our list in 2016, so Minnesota will have to wait).

Wednesday
Distance: 8.03
Pace: 9:17 average pace with 10 strides
Supplemental training: Flexibility 

Wow, this run sucked. My legs felt like lead the entire run, my headphones refused to stay in my ears, and my allergies made it difficult to breathe. Bleh. I was so glad when this run was finished.

Thursday
Distance: 10.0
Pace: 8:53

I was prepared for this run to be a miserable continuation of Wednesday's run, but it actually ended up feeling great! I'm not sure how my legs felt better after an 8 mile run than they felt after 2 rest days, but they did.

Friday
Supplemental training: core

Saturday
Distance: 5.0
Pace: 10:03
Supplemental Training: Flexibility 

Sunday
Distance: 13.1
Pace: 9:00

This was my first run ever with a GPS watch. Since the Garmin 220 can now be had for just $175, I couldn't resist. So now I can look at the mile splits for this run and think, what the hell is up with my pacing!? Which, really, it isn't so bad. Most of the weirdness can be explained away with water stops, steep hill climbs, etc.

The last 3.1 miles of the run I picked the pace up: 8:33, 8:24, 8:00, 7:48 (0.1). It feels good to know that I can get the pace down to actual half marathon pace at the end of a 13.1 training run.

Totals
Distance: 36.13
Speed work: strides + fast finish long run
Supplemental Training: 2 flex, 2 core, 1 strength

I feel really good about this week. I was able to move Tuesday's run to Wednesday without creating any issues. I picked up a second day of core work without any issues. The only workout that didn't go quite as planned was Sunday's long run.

I was supposed to do 13 miles with 8 at marathon pace. However, I still am not quite sure which pace to use for MP and I didn't want my first run with my Garmin to be spent getting yelled at by my watch for running too slow. So I ran by feel and let myself pick up the pace whenever I wanted. I actually had 6 miles that were sub 9:00 and another 2 miles that were just a touch over. So probably close enough.

Charlevoix Half Training - Week 1

Monday
Cross training: Core + Strength Training

Tuesday
Distance: 8.17
Pace: 2 miles easy, 4 miles at HMP (7:55), 2 miles easy
Cross training: Flexibility 

I only timed the middle 4 miles of my run, so I am not sure what the pace was for the other 4 miles. I don't think it matters. I did this exact same run last Tuesday and it felt more difficult this week. Probably due to racing on Saturday.

Wednesday
Rest

Thursday
Distance: 9.09 miles
Pace: 9:14
Cross Training: flexibility

Apart from a mid-run bathroom break, this was a pretty easy run.

Friday
Rest

The husband and I kicked off our weekend with some beer sampling at the World Expo of Beer. We have been going to this event every year for the past 6-7 years. I was so grateful that Saturday's run was a short one, because I knew I was going to be in rough shape the next day. 

Saturday
Distance: 4.1
Pace: 9:38

Sunday
Distance: 12.18
Pace: 9:30

It was in the upper 60s when I started this run and mid 70s by the time I finished. Plus humidity. The last couple miles I could really feel the heat, but I was able to maintain my pace.

Totals
Distance: 33.54 miles
Speed work: 1 tempo run
Cross Training: 2 flex, 1 core, 1 strength

I'm really pleased with how this week turned out. 33 miles is a pretty normal week for me, but this week had the mileage spread across just 4 days instead of my usual 5. In another week or so I will pick back up that 5th day of running. The speed work was comfortably hard, which was a nice change of pace (pun intended) from 5k training. In terms of cross training, I need to add at least one more day per week of core work.

So...what's next?

In January I posted a tentative race schedule for 2015, but I never actually finalized it. Honestly, apart from my marathon (entry deferred from 2014), I haven't signed up for any races. I registered for Shanty 2 Short's about 5 days before the race. I think I was worried that I would get injured again and not be able to run. Last year was the first year that I DNS a race, and I think that has been playing mental games with me ever since.

But now that I have the first race of the season under my belt and it was a huge PR...well, I'm ready to start thinking about what comes next. My big, number 1 goal of the year is the Grand Rapids Marathon. I want to do everything that I can to ensure that this race is awesome.

One thing that I learned during this training cycle, is that I just can't plan for every eventuality. For example, losing one week to an illness was rough, but I was able to adjust my training plan accordingly. Losing a second week to a minor injury left a lot of training on the table (which I've actually decided is a good thing, but more on this later!). I don't want to run into a similar situation during my peak weeks of marathon training, so I am letting myself get started with my training a bit earlier than originally planned.

For my marathon training, I will be using the 18/55 plan found in Pete Pfitzinger's Advanced Marathoning (not an affiliate link). This plan is 18 weeks long and peaks at 55 miles, hence the name. The 18 week plan is divided into 4 meso-cycles, the first of which is 6 weeks long. Which works almost perfectly with training for my next goal race, the Charlevoix Half Marathon on June 27 (7 weeks away). I will be adding a week to this first meso-cycle to accommodate my race schedule.

source

To get read for the half marathon, I will be focusing on extending my weekly long run distance by 1-2 miles per week and shift my speed work from 5k effort intervals to longer tempo runs and strides. It worked out perfectly that this is also the exact start of the 18/55 plan. While 7 weeks is really not long enough to be a true half marathon training plan, I am hoping that the past 10 weeks of 5k training plus the seven additional weeks of training will be enough to get me a new PR.