Weekly Training Wrap-up

I am pretty sure I mentioned before that I am currently in training for my first half marathon on April 13th. This will be my longest race distance to date. I am honestly terrified of running a race distance that long. So much can go wrong (or right) in 13.1 miles. I LOVE 5ks, because not much happens for me in the 3 miles. I either feel good, or I feel bad. And if I feel bad, I’ve only got to struggle through 3 miles. Consequently, if I feel bad during the half, well, that’s a whole other story. However, my goal this year is to think positive. So, like the little engine that could, “I think I can”. I am on my 10th week of training, following a highly tweaked Hal Higdon Intermediate Plan. Last year, my mileage jumped pretty quickly, and as a result I was injured quite often. This year, I have done a lot of research on proper training. As a result I have made some training rules:

1. Running easy on easy days
2. Running even easier during long runs
3. Running hard on hard days
4. Never allowing my long run to exceed more than 35% of weekly mileage
5. Increasing weekly mileage slowly (slightly less than 10%)
6. Weight Training

I know a lot of those rules sound like common sense, but last year, I did not have any “gears” when it came to training. All of my runs were at the same pace except when running intervals. Then, I would just run as fast as I possibly could and then burn out after the 4th or 5th interval. I think that my first year of running was learning a lot of lessons the hard way, and now this year is about running smart. Following these newfound rules, I have remained injury free, which for me is a miracle.

I stayed pretty closely to my schedule this week.

	Scheduled	Actual
Mon	Easy 4.5mi	Easy 5mi
Tues	Tempo 6.5	Tempo 6mi
Wed	Weights	Weights
Thurs	Easy 4mi	Easy 3.25mi
Fri	HM Pace 4mi	HM Pace 4.27mi
Sat	Long 10	Long 10mi
Sun	Weights	Rest
Weekly Totals	29	28.52

I varied very slightly and I wish I would have done weights again on Sunday as scheduled because I think that is one of the main reasons I have been injury free this year so far. It’s something I did not incorporate at all last training cycle. Also, my long run on Saturday was faster paced than I would have liked it to be. I ran with NSET running group and I didn’t want to get left behind. Hope that doesn’t come back to bite me.

I am really excited about next Sunday. I am racing the Leprechaun 5k Race.

Since I just started running consistently last February, it was my very first solo race ever last March. This is going to be a very good indication as how far I have come a s a runner in a years’ time. My time last year was 30:33, I can’t wait to see what I run this year.