Category Archives: Half Marathon

Half Training: Week Ten

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I had a great post all written and kapooey – the server went down and I lost it. So I’ll try and recreate it the best I can!

I had great plans and aspirations for this week since it was my spring break. I thought, “I can sleep in, get some great training runs in and feel great.” Well that isn’t what happened. I did get to sleep in, but sadly it was due more to the need of sleep to get over a little bug. It is probably the combination of traveling, staying up late, and all the weather changes but I got a little mucus stuck in my throat and lungs so I took some time off to recoup and beat it before the race in 2 short weeks!

Monday – Run 3 miles at an easy pace, then speed up to goal half marathon pace for 7 miles. Run one more mile at an easy pace to cool down. Having spent 15 hours in a car the day before and not getting a ton of sleep I opted to just do an easy run this morning. It was great 40 degrees with a slight rain. I ran along the Prairie Path in Wheaton, IL which was a little muddy but still had solid footing. I was going to just do 5 but I felt good and kept going to add the extra mile. My overall run was 6 miles in 46:25.

Tuesday – Run 6 miles easy. Run 5 acceleration strides. I spent 7 hours in a bus yesterday and got to Minneapolis with over 5 inches of snow on the ground. By the time I ran most of the Greenway had been plowed, there were still icy parts and connecting trails from the Greenway to Lake Calhoun still had all the snow on them. I did yesterday’s “tempo” workout today minus 2 miles of the pace work. My leg still didn’t feel 100%. I did the 5 mile tempo in 38:46, pretty lame if you ask me and about a minute per mile slower than it should have been. My overall run was 9 miles in 1:12:46.

Wednesday – Run 2 x 800/1200/3200 meter supersets. Run 800 meters at 5K pace, 1200 meters at 10K pace and 3200 meters at goal half marathon pace. Do not rest between the distances. Recover between the sets with 800 meters at an easy pace. Cool down with 800 meters at an easy pace. I had planned on doing an easy run today, but awoke feeling a little sick and sore and just plain yucky and tired. So I opted to go to the gym and biked for 8 miles in 30:35. It felt good and wasn’t too strenuous. I also took advantage of being at the YWCA to get some good stretching in.

Thursday – Run 4 miles easy. Run 5 acceleration strides. I planned on doing the superset workout today if I woke up feeling healthy. But I actually felt worse and so opted for a day-off despite fore-casted temps in the 50’s. AHH just a little frustrating. But I want to be healthy in 2 weeks so a day off now is better than later!

Friday – Run 4 miles easy. Run 5 acceleration strides. Another beautiful day wasted away at home.

Saturday – Standard warm up. Run 8 miles at goal half marathon pace. We were camping up north, I had brought clothes but opted not to run on the trails, which turned out to be a good thing since they were still ice and snow covered, or very muddy!

Sunday – Rest Day! I did rest!!

Total Mileage: 15 miles in 1:58:25 and 8 miles on the bike!

[tags] Half Marathon, Training [/tags]

Half Training: Week Nine

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Well another week down! It was another crazy one as we spent Monday in Anderson seeing some friends and getting up pretty early and by the end of the week I was in Alabama at a wedding!

Monday – Run 4 x 2400 meter repeats at 10K pace. Jog for 800 meters between repeats. Cool down with 800 meters of easy jogging. I took today off, we were exhausted from the traveling and such and I didn’t really have time to fit in a run and be productive.

Tuesday – Run 6 miles easy. Run 5 acceleration strides. So this week was a little off again. I did the 2400’s today. 2400 is 1.5 miles which is a pretty long interval. My plan was to run them around 9:30. The weather was some of the nicest in awhile. I only had to wear one long sleeved shirt! I ran along the Greenway, I went straight out instead of looping around one of the lakes this time. This was the farthest west I had gone to date. My interval splits were: 10:31, 10:52, 10:12, and 10:44. All right around 7 minute pace.

Wednesday – Run 3 x 400/800/1600 meter repeats. Run 400 meters at 20 seconds per mile faster than 5K pace, 800 meters at 5K pace and 1600 meters at goal half marathon pace. Take no rest between the distances. Recover between the sets with 800 meters at an easy pace. Cool down with 800 meters at an easy pace. I was going to take it easy today and run the 6 miles. Sadly it didn’t go as planned at all. About 3/4 of a mile into the run I got some sharp pain in my right shin and some pain in my calf. I stopped and tried to stretch it out and ran for a little more, but the pain kept coming. I turned around and eventually walked home. The total run was 1.75 miles. I iced and took Ibuprofen when I got home. I also massaged my calf a little bit.

Thursday – Run 4 miles easy. Run 5 acceleration strides. My leg didn’t hurt all day yesterday after running, so I thought I’d try and do the workout. It felt pretty good for the most part, I stretched a little more than usual and focused on running on the shoulder of the Greenway trail when possible. I also did more walking during the 800 recovery than normal (which may impact the overall benefit of the workout, but I think helped my leg). The splits were nothing spectacular and I only did 2 supersets instead of 3, by the end my leg was starting to hurt more and more. The total workout was 5.71 miles in 45:08. My splits are: 1:21, 3:15, 7:04 and 1:33, 3:28, 7:02. More ice and Ibuprofen.

Friday – Run 4 miles easy. Run 5 acceleration strides. I took Friday off since I was getting up at 4am to catch a flight to Alabama for a wedding. When I finally made it here it was nice and warm mid-70’s and it kind of made me want to run, but there wasn’t really time and since my legs been hurting it was all good!

Saturday – Run 16 miles. Run the first 11 miles at an easy pace. Run the last 5 miles at goal half marathon pace. I kind of knew that this probably wouldn’t happen, but I came prepared to run the 16. It is kind of funny since this is a wedding with all of my old cross country buddies, but only 3 of us went this morning. We ended up doing 5.5 miles in 43 minutes in the balmy 66 degree weather. I wasn’t sure how 16 would go with my leg, a factor of time, and the fact that another guy is training for a marathon and has had some knee problems.  Is that enough excuses for you??? What about the fact that I’m not sure I need to run 16 miles to perform well at a 13 mile race?

Sunday – Rest!

Totals: 22.1 miles in 2:53:33.

This was a crazy week. Hopefully the next two weeks will go smoothly.

[tags] Half Marathon, Training [/tags]

Half Training: Week Eight

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Well this is another crazy week here. The race last Sunday is still playing havoc with the training schedule as well as a quick trip south for Easter.

Here’s what I got for the week:

Monday – Run 2 miles at 10K pace, then slow down to goal half marathon pace for 5 miles. After the 5 miles at goal pace, speed up to 5K pace for 800 meters. Cool down with 800 meters at an easy pace. I actually did 4 easy miles in fluffy white snow with the temperatures right around freezing. It felt good to just go for an easy run and loosen up after Sunday’s race. I ran it in 33:30.

Tuesday – Run 6 miles easy. Run 5 acceleration strides. I ran Monday’s workout on Tuesday for a grand total of 9.14 miles in 1:13:59. It was way off pace for each segment mostly attributed to the 2-4 inches of fresh, wet snow covering the trails the entire 9 miles! I’ll report my actual times but not the goal times: 2 miles in 14:57, 5 miles in 40:37 and 1/2 mile in 3:33. You can do the math and realize that these were all way off track, but the difference between each segment was approximately the same as the pace goals.

Wednesday – Run 30 minutes alternating between 30 seconds at 20 seconds per mile faster than 5K pace and 30 seconds at an easy pace. Cool down with 5 minutes at an easy pace. I just did an easy 5.5 miles along the Greenway. It was a little cooler this morning at 28 but not very icy which was a nice change! I took it very easy and ran it in 46:28. No reason to push too hard. Overall I’m feeling a little sluggish and tired since Sunday’s race. It might be partly due to bad eating habits lately. I don’t know.

Thursday – Run 6 miles easy. Run 5 acceleration strides. You guessed it I ran 30 minutes alternating 30 seconds all out and 30 seconds easy. This was a nice run with the temps hovering around 30 with no significant wind factor. I ran out and back along the Greenway. I’m sure I ticked off one runner as I went flying by him, only to slow way down for 30 seconds right in front of him. Then when he almost caught back up, I went flying off again! The joys of being controlled by a beeping device on your wrist! I almost caught him again on the way back but he turned off before I did. Nothing too exciting to report – the overall run was 6.05 miles in 45 minutes.

Friday – Run 4 miles easy. Run 5 acceleration strides. I probably should have run since it was sunny and almost 40 in Indianapolis, but after driving and sleeping in a car all night I’m not overly rested – and I usually cross-train once a week anyways. We don’t have any YWCA Fitness Centers around here so I can’t use a reciprocal membership to my advantage.

Saturday – Run a 10K race or a 10K time trial. Run the race or time trial in your best possible time. That’s what I did last week at the Human Race 8K. I was planning to go long today, but our schedule didn’t really make it possible without getting up at 4am Minneapolis time. So I got 2 days off in a row!

Sunday – Rest Day! Happy Easter! I was hoping to rest today but the travel schedule made today a lot easier to run. It turned out being wonderful! It was like 28 without any wind in Indianapolis. I took off under a full-moon or at least near full moon and ran around the neighborhood before heading towards Fort Harrison State Park. I ran along part of the course for the Indianapolis Half and Full Marathon in the fall. I snuck into the park through a side gate to avoid having to pay the entrance fee. It is a pretty hilly course, which I’m not really used to. I ran around the park and ran around on some of their trails which felt great. Everything was fairly muddy, but it was a crisp morning with lots of birds chirping and my first spring run! I ran a total of 14 miles in 1:57:33 which wasn’t too bad with all the hills and running solitary.

Weekly Totals: 38.7 miles in 5:16:26. I guess it was good I took 2 days off, this was the highest mileage week of the year!

[tags] Half-Marathon, Training [/tags]

Half Training: Week Seven

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This is an interesting week – the weather definitely warmed up which continued to create its own unqiue problems and I had a race on Sunday which changed my scheduling a bit. In Indiana there were very few Sunday races so it was never a problem for me to add a race into a training schedule, it usually just replaced or was added into Saturday’s long run. This “dilemma” created some unique problems. I want to be able to race well and see where I am fitness-wise and actually next weekend the schedule called for a 10K time trial. The race is 8K so it is close enough in my opinion. The only problem is that this week had some intense workouts which didn’t necessarily provide a good opportunity to have a mini-taper! As you’ll see the only changes I made were reducing the mileage of one of my easy runs and taking Saturday off.

Monday – Run 7 x 1600 meter repeats at 10K pace or 15 seconds per mile slower than 5K pace. Jog for 800 meters between repeats. Jog for 800 meters to cool down. It was 10 above at 6:40 when I began this workout. I really would like a track for interval work, but the only one I know of is still covered in snow! So I ran these along the Greenway, around Lake of the Isles and Lake Calhoun before heading home. The plan was to run each repeat around 6:26-6:30. I probably sound like a broken record but there is still a significant amount of ice on the trails and some of the sidewalks I ran on. One of these days I won’t have that reason (excuse?) for poor performance! My splits were 6:55, 6:47, 6:39, 6:56, 6:42, 7:12, and 6:35. The 7:12 was almost all on ice covered sidewalks. Only the last one was in a decent range of my goal splits, which means I probably should have taken each one a little harder! Overall I ran 12.34 miles in 1:35:53.

Tuesday – Run 6 miles easy. Run 5 acceleration strides. Per my plan to “taper” into the race I ran 4 miles in 34:38 along the Greenway. It was 33 and sunny at 6:55 when I went running. It was pretty dark actually when I started thanks to Daylight Savings Time!

Wednesday – Run 2 x 400/800/2400 meter supersets. Run 400 meters at 20 seconds per mile faster than 5K pace, 800 meters at 5K pace and 2400 meters at goal half marathon pace. Do not rest between the distances. Recover between the sets with 800 meters at an easy pace. Cool down with 800 meters at an easy pace. Ah, another superset! I’m going to be honest – these sucked, my times sucked. A lot of ice on the Greenway still, the warmer weather felt good but the run just stunk. The goal times were 1:20, 2:53, 10:14 (6:52 pace). Here are my intervals: 1:22, 3:29, 11:36 and 1:40, 3:57, 11:33. HORRIBLE! The total mileage was 6.6 miles in 54:57.

Thursday – Run 4 miles easy. Run 5 acceleration strides. This was my cross-training day. I did 7 miles on the bike again in 28:30. No lifting this week.

Friday – Run 4 miles easy. Run 5 acceleration strides. I ran around noon and did an odd – almost touristy route downtown and along the river for a little bit. It was 4.68 miles in 37:02. It was almost 40 with bright shiny sun!!

Saturday – Run 14 miles. Run the first 10 miles at an easy pace. Run the last 4 miles at goal half marathon pace. As planned I took this as a rest day instead of Sunday, when I’ll race.

Sunday – Rest Day! After some frustrating days running this week I was excited and nervous to see how I would race. I was quite pleased with my first race in Minnesota. I ran the Human Race 8K at 1:20pm in 40 degree weather. I must report that I am very excited about my time! My overall time was 31:27 (officially) which was 33 seconds faster than my goal time! My mile splits were 6:20, 6:12, 6:25, 6:34, and 5:51 (.99 miles). That is all I’ll say for now, so be sure to check back tomorrow for a full race report!

Weekly Totals: 35.5 miles of running for 4:11:52 and 7 miles of biking in 28:30.

[tags] Half Marathon, Training [/tags]

Half Training: Week Six

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Halfway through the training plan – that means only 6 more weeks until race day. It really is coming quite quickly. I am definitely tired of the cold and having to check the weather each morning to find out how many layers I actually need to wear. The MDRA blog says it well: “The only good thing I’ve found about running in below zero temps is this; I know exactly how to dress. When the temp is in the mid 20s I’m always too hot or too cold by the end of a run. But I can totally nail it at minus 5. Weird.”

If you followed along with my mileage and workout stats on the sidebar for this week, you may have thought I slacked off. Well I did, just not the way you thought! I slacked off on inputting running data into the computer. I wanted to enter it accurately – it is all on the Garmin – so I just kept waiting around to do it.

Monday – Run 4 x 1200 meter repeats at 5K pace. Recover between the repeats with 800 meters at an easy pace. Cool down with 800 meters at an easy pace. It was a chilly 8 above with a -8 wind chill so it was quite windy for this interval workout. I did it along the Greenway for an overal run of 6.53 miles in 51:19. I think you will be able to tell by my splits which way the wind was blowing during this out and back run. My goal pace for each interval was 4:19 – 4:40. An additional note there is still many icy patches on the trail. I ran 5:01, 5:13, 4:55, 4:52 so none of them were in the target range – but pretty close considering the clothing and environmental challenges!

Tuesday – Run 6 miles easy. Run 5 acceleration strides. I ran 5.2 miles in 8:32. I don’t remember the weather, but I’m guessing it was cold and windy! I ran from home to downtown and then back down the bike trail to the Midtown Greenway.

Wednesday – Run 5 miles on a hill that is gradually and consistently uphill. Run at a pace that feels like 10K pace. Your actual pace will be slower due to the incline. It was about 24 this morning with at least an inch of snow on the roads and sidewalks when I left and it snowed the entire run. The warmer temps felt good and the snow provided a nice cushion. The workout sheet offered an indoor alternative – treadmill at 3-5%. I hate treadmills and figured out a way to incorporate some hills into my run without having to drive any where. The trade-off was having to run on sidewalks instead of the Greenway. I almost got hit by the rear end of a sliding bus and came upon a taxi-van sitting in the middle of the sidewalk – he crashed into an electric type box after sliding across the road and up onto the sidewalk. He said he was fine so I maneuvered carefully around him. I didn’t have the route perfectly memorized in my head so I missed the route I had planned but still had an excellent workout along the East River Parkway. I’m not sure why but the East side wasn’t plowed as well as the West – and it was still Minneapolis so it wasn’t just because I was in St Paul or anything. My overall run was 7.86 miles in 1:06:32. I ran 2.09 miles before I got to the beginning of the hills with a split of 18:30. The next 5 miles I ran in 41:29 which is a sad 8:11 pace – I wasn’t running anywhere near 10K effort for most of the run but it was a snowy mess! The last .7 miles I ran in 6:31. So not the best workout but there was hills and maybe next time I’ll actually remember where I’m going!

Thursday – Run 6 miles easy. Run 5 acceleration strides. I hit the bike this morning. My legs have felt pretty good, but it was something like -20 wind chill so I thought it would be a perfect day for cross-training. I wasn’t too ambitious on the bike and only did 7 miles in 29:30 – about half the normal time and way off the normal pace. Afterwards I lifted – I don’t think I’ve said anything about that before, but I’ve been lifting lower body for a few weeks. I’ve been doing it on whichever day I cross train, but today I also added triceps and biceps. I need to find my lifting sheet and get back into it.

Friday – Run 4 miles easy. Run 5 acceleration strides. I ran 4.16 miles in the afternoon on some random streets. I finished the run in 33:32. The sidewalks weren’t too bad today – there are still spots that are horrible (like where the sun never hits) but the majority have been nicely cleaned since Tuesday’s snow. I almost didn’t run again today, but honestly the though of having to write on here about not running for no good reason motivated me to do it. It was -5 actual temps this morning and I knew I’d be able to run later in the day when it was 10 above (1 above windchill). But when that time came I just didn’t feel like it. As always I’m glad I ran, even if it was just to explore new neighborhoods.

Saturday – Run 2 x 20 minute repeats at 10K pace. Jog for 5 minutes between repeats. I thought it was supposed to be warming up! It was 2 above with a -10 wind chill this morning. So I bundled up and took off. 10K pace is around 6:30 per mile. I was hoping to be able to run about 3 miles or even a full 5K in this time – 2.87 miles out (6:59 pace) and 2.76 (7:15) on the way back. A little disappointing but there were times I was at 6:30 pace, it was stinking cold! The overall run was 7.72 miles in 1:00:06.

Sunday – Rest! Gladly!

Totals for the week: Running – 31.4 miles and 4:15:20 hours Biking – 7 miles in 29:30 minutes.

This week should be a fun week of running with some good workouts. The weather also looks pretty good!

[tags] Half-Marathon, Training [/tags]