Half Marathon Training: Week 1 [2015 Edition]

Seriously? I can’t believe I’m in training again. (This is my pretend attempt at complaining. Because I secretly really like being in training.) 😉

So here we are! I’m in training again! Loving it! Not loving the weather so much, though. We’ve had quite our fair share of rain this summer in the Cleve. It’s so hard to wrap my head around half of the country being in severe drought, while we’re being inundated with water. It doesn’t seem fair — for either party. (Thank you, global warming.)

As you probably know by now, I’m in training for the Rock Hall Half Marathon. I’m particularly excited about this race as it’s essentially in my ‘hood and I’m very familiar with the race course. And it’s on the opposite end of town as the Cleveland Marathon route, so it will be a nice change of scenery. With this go of half marathon training, I’m using a coach! My coach and I started talking when I had some questions about some RRCA principles. He’s been a big help to me and I’m grateful to be one of his athletes. It’s a much different experience, so far, and it’s only been a week! For one thing, I get my schedule two weeks at a time. This is helpful for planning purposes and juggling “real life” with “running life.”

Last week was a nice, easy introduction back into training. Here’s how it went:

Monday — 4 miles

Monday’s run was fueled by a lack of sleep and panic, thankyouverymuch. On Sunday evening, just before we were going to bed, my husband and I received an email from our realtor saying we had an offer on our house. ACK! Of course, we stayed up late, got very little sleep as we were both tossing and turning, and instead of my thoughts clearing up on my run, they just got foggier and more panicked. I got some decent miles in, but it was not at all the calming run I was hoping for. It was very humid but a nice temperature (around 65˚ or so) and I had zero pain in either of my legs. Overall it was a good run, just not very “settled,” so to speak.

Tuesday — yoga+strength training

I did a 20-minute yoga session to loosen things up. It’s been almost a month since I’ve done yoga so this was a bit difficult. I also did a 40-minute strength session. Again, it’s been a month since I’ve done any sort of strength training. This felt incredible and incredibly hard. But now that I’m back at it, I love it.

Wednesday — 3 miles

Wednesday was a much better run. I met up with Julie and Noemi for some early morning miles. We started off pretty fast. I felt like I was running much faster than my conversation pace, but Julie and Noemi seemed to be doing just fine. I sucked it up and by the end of the run I was fine. But for a brief moment or two I was a little worried that I had lost some of my comfortable speed. We finished up around a 9:34 pace. Again, zero pain.

Thursday — strength training

I did some more strength training on Thursday. I’m technically supposed to be doing leg strength every day, and I have been, but on Tuesday and Thursday I did the whole shebang.

Friday — 4 miles

On Friday I met up with Julie for morning miles. Julie is so speedy! It was a fun run and it felt good. I don’t want to jinx it, but again, no pain! (I’m starting to see a trend, here…)

Saturday — 2.56 miles

Ugh, Saturday. Saturday was supposed to be my long run day of 5 miles. Let me just tell you — this rain can stop any time it wants. Saturday was going to be epic. There was going to be a group of about 10 of us meeting up for trail and road miles, and then after that I was going to meet up with my 5K training group. It was going to be a great day. Instead, we were pounded with rain all day. There was a brief respite and I headed out for what I was hoping would be 5 miles, but rain forced me back in. I was about 2 miles in and the sky opened up and dropped a giant bucket on me. I sprinted home. And I was drenched. But hey, I got some nice splits that day! I went through the rest of the day staring out the window and joking with my husband, “should I go finish my run now?”

Sunday — 1.78 miles

I religiously checked the weather for Sunday because I rescheduled the 5K group for Sunday morning. It was our first week and I did not want to cancel again going into a holiday weekend. There would supposedly be a break in the rain for about two hours starting at 7 am, so that’s when we were meeting. Of course on my way there the fog was so dense I could barely see 10 feet in front of me. And when I parked my car, it started misting. And then once we were under cover in the Shelterhouse, the steady rain began.

Sigh…

We did our warm-up, ran for 20 minutes, and came back under cover for cool-down. Overall we ran just under 2 miles. And since my Saturday was a bust, I’m counting these as training miles. 🙂

Overall, I logged just over 15 miles for the week. I had NO PAIN the entire week and I felt good and strong. I did pull something on Sunday while doing side lunges, so that’s something I’m going to keep an eye on, but so far? So good!

How about you — what are YOU training for? If not a race, what type of activity are you focusing on this summer?

Let’s catch up some more tomorrow. 🙂