Today was my first day back at work AND my first day of my training schedule for my next half marathon. No better way to start an exciting day than be completely sleep deprived! My lack of routine this Summer totally whacked out my sleep schedule, so it was well after midnight when I finally fell asleep last night. That would have been okay I suppose, but I had set my alarm for 445am to get up and do my run before work. And THAT would have even been okay- I can function fairly well on 4 1/2 hours of sleep....
Cue obnoxious thunderstorm at 330am. Normally I am a huge fan of storms, but I was a little irritated when it woke me this morning. Though admittedly, it was a pretty fantastic storm- the sky was all strobe-lighty.
Anyway, after laying in bed reading Facebook and seeing that half of the city was awake, laying in bed, posting updates about how they couldn't sleep through the storm, I decided to give up on falling asleep around 4am.
Strong cup of coffee consumed and excitedly got ready for my run! I need to remind myself of this feeling of excitement when I am undoubtedly bitching about running about 8 weeks from now.
Training plan called for a 2 mile easy run at a 13:33 pace. I couldn't resist bumping my speed a little bit, so I did 2 miles at 12:47 pace.
I am working on tweaking my plan a little bit. My training plan for the last half marathon was pretty straightforward as I was only training to finish, not training for a specific time goal. My last training plan didn't tell me what pace to keep, it just dictated the number of miles. It was nice and simple.
This time around I am hopeful to finish the half in 2 hrs 35 min, which would mean I have to keep a 11:45 pace (5.1 mph). So now it gets all complicated... speedwork, tempo runs, running everything at a specific pace... it's all quite messy.
I made up a "personalized" training plan on runnersworld.com, but I'm kind of questioning the training they are having me do to reach my goal of 2:35. It has me running 4 days a week. 2 easy runs, one tempo or speed run, and one long run. The only time I am ever required to run the 11:45 pace is during the tempo and speed runs. It makes me nervous to have my long run pace be SO different from my race day goal. I know that that is how many training plans are, but it just makes me nervous to run the half marathon having never done a long run at my goal pace.
My first half marathon I completed in 3:05, which is a 14:12 pace (approx 4.2 mph). So I'm wondering if an 11:45 pace is too lofty a goal for this next half? My training is only 10 weeks long this time, so I don't know if I am aiming too high. Or maybe I could do even better than 11:45 if I tweaked my training runs.... Aaack- this is where it gets all complicated and overwhelming! AND it calls for me to run 8 miles already this weekend! This training schedule is very heavy on the long run mileage.
So for now I have a schedule, but I may adjust as the weeks go on depending on how my runs go. I am going to aim to do my runs at a slightly faster pace than the schedule requires because I want my long run pace to better match my race day pace.
I am going to attempt to attach my training schedule and if anyone wants to add their input, that would be great! Happy Monday everyone! :)
August 2011
| ◄ Jul 2011 | ~ August 2011 ~ | Sep 2011 ► | ||||
| Sun | Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat |
| | 1 Easy 2 miles @ 13:33 | 2 | 3 Tempo 5 mi inc warm, 3 mi @ 11:54, cool | 4 Easy 2 mi @ 13:30 | 5 | 6 Long 8 mi @ 13:30 |
| 7 | 8 Easy 3 mi @ 13:30 | 9 | 10 Speedwork 4 mi. inc warm, 2x1600 in 11:11 w/ 800 jogs cool | 11 Easy 2 mi @ 13:27 | 12 | 13 Long 9 mi @ 13:27 |
| 14 | 15 Easy 2 mi @ 13:24 | 16 | 17 Tempo 5 mi. inc warm, 3 mi @ 11:45, cool | 18 Easy 2 mi @ 13:24 | 19 | 20 Long 10 mi @ 13:24 |
| 21 | 22 Easy 3 mi @ 13:21 | 23 | 24 Speedwork 4 mi inc warm, 2x1600 @ 11:02 w/ 800 jogs, cool | 25 Easy 3 mi @ 13:21 | 26 | 27 Long 10 mi @ 13:21 |
| 28 | 29 Easy 4 mi @13:18 | 30 | 31 Easy 4 mi @13:18 | Notes: | ||
September 2011
| ◄ Aug 2011 | ~ September 2011 ~ | Oct 2011 ► | ||||
| Sun | Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat |
| | | | | 1 Easy 4 mi @13:18 | 2 | 3 Easy 4 mi @13:18 |
| 4 | 5 Easy 3 mi @ 13:18 | 6 | 7 Tempo 5 mi, inc warm, 3 mi @ 11:39, cool | 8 Easy 3 mi @ 13:18 | 9 | 10 Long 10 mi @ 13:18 |
| 11 | 12 Easy 3 mi @ 13:15 | 13 | 14 Tempo 6 mi inc warm, 4 mi @ 11:42, cool | 15 Easy 2 mi @ 13:15 | 16 | 17 Long 11 mi @ 13:15 |
| 18 | 19 Easy 3 mi @ 13:12 | 20 | 21 Speedwork 6 mi inc warm, 3x1600 in 10:54 w/ 800 jogs, cool | 22 Easy 3 mi @ 13:12 | 23 | 24 Long 11 mi @ 13:12 |
| 25 | 26 Easy 3 mi @ 13:09 | 27 | 28 Tempo 6 mi inc warm, 4 mi @ 11:36, cool | 29 Easy 3 mi @ 13:09 | 30 | Notes: |
October 2011
| ◄ Sep 2011 | ~ October 2011 ~ | Nov 2011 ► | ||||
| Sun | Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat |
| | | | | | | 1 Long 12 mi @ 13:09 |
| 2 | 3 Easy 2 mi @ 13:06 | 4 | 5 Easy 2 mi @ 13:06 | 6 | 7 | 8 Race day! 13.1 mi @ 11:45 Time: 2:34 |
| 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 |
| 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 |
| 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 |
| 30 | 31 | Notes: | ||||
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