Getting Excited for the Half Marathon

This week is the last week of hard training before I started tapering back for the half marathon. I am getting really excited for the race and keep finding myself wishing it was earlier in November. But I know the extra weeks of training and tapering will help me run faster. I ran my last long tempo run this past weekend and feel good about it. I went into it a bit worried about how it would go because my legs were still feeling a little worn out after my track workout earlier in the week. I had planned to run 4 sets of 1200/400 where I jogged a 200 between the 1200 and 400. I felt so great during the workout I decided to keep running 400's until I couldn't hit 1:26 anymore. At the time I had a voice in the back of my head telling me maybe I shouldn't keep adding reps because it would take me longer to recover but I felt great and I kept thinking back to an interview of Usain Bolt where he said the last repeat was the most important. I figured if I could keep going I should. The workout was awesome and I really enjoyed it. I couldn't remember the last time I ran speedwork on the track and there's just something amazing about being on the track.

The kids ready to get out for a run. Carter was excited to play with his new toy from my Aunt Judy and Uncle Mike.

Carter drawing on his Boogie Board during a run.

I ran a 2 mile warm up on Saturday and then took off on my 11 mile tempo. My goal pace was 7:10. I went through the first mile in 7:25 and was concerned the tempo wasn't going to go well because I felt like I was running a decent pace. But then I followed that mile up with a 6:50 mile in which I felt like I was maintaining pace so my hope was restored. On the way back I realized the entire first mile had been up a slight incline so that definitely slowed it down. I finished the 11 mile tempo at an average of 7:08 pace. I was extremely pleased with that as it was my first tempo run on a moderately hilly course. All my other tempos have been on our Riverside paved trails which are completely flat with the exception of a few mild hills here and there. I ran my 11 mile tempo at my parents' house and ran out to an area where I knew there would be some hills. It was also a very windy day. Both things that will affect my time at the Route 66 half marathon as it is a decently hilly course and we tend to have lots of high wind days here in Oklahoma! I was shocked when the Garmin I was using beeped to show me I had run my fastest half marathon (I've been using Ty's watch for a while as mine stopped picking up satellites). With my two warm up miles included with my 11 mile tempo I had run a 1:37:32 half marathon. Both my warm up miles were close to 9 minutes so I figure take around 4 minutes off and that puts me at a 1:33 half which I would be pleased with. I definitely think I can do better than that but it is nice to have the validation that I should be able to annihilate my goal of running under 1:35 for the half! Saturday's run with 2 warm up miles and a cool down mile put me at 14 miles for the day which is the longest run I've ever done training for a half marathon, I've gone up to 22 training for a full, but usually stick with 12 mile long runs for a half.

I was excited that I ran my last mile of the tempo in 6:48. That just goes to show how bad my Twilight Thriller race was. I ran my last mile of an 11 mile tempo only 2 seconds slower than my last mile of a 5k at that race! I've been really dissatisfied with how my race went there and I know it was the best shot I had at running a decent 5k time this season. After the half marathon I'll take it easy for a week or two and don't feel confident I could run a fast 5k this winter. I'd really like a chance to go for a time I'm happy with sometime this fall. A parent of one of my past students has been asking me to run a half marathon her son's cross country team puts on as a fundraiser. I was already registered for an evening 5k that day and didn't want to run a half in the morning and a 5k in the evening. This past weekend she reminded me there is also a 5k with the race so Ty and I decided I would register for it. I will race the 5k in the morning and then just have fun in the evening 5k which was already the plan as it is the Wicked Wine Run and they serve wine at the water stops so it's just intended to be a fun race! I'm excited to have the chance to redeem my 5k performance from the Twilight Thriller this season!

My fastest half marathon on this watch.

Last week I ran my first 50 mile week since college and I'll follow that up with another 50 mile week this week before tapering off. It has been fun to plan out my weeks to figure out how to bump up my mileage. I had been running 30-35 mile weeks since the end of July. Then I bumped up to 40 miles the first full week in September but didn't run 40 miles every week, averaging 35-40 miles a week. After we ran the Zoo Run 10k I started thinking if I could run 6:40 pace for a 10k off 35-40 mile weeks, what could I do off 50 mile weeks? I wanted to build gradually since I hadn't run a 40 mile week in at least seven years so it took me a while to get up to 50 miles. I'm interested to see how the half marathon goes. I think I'd be better off if I had built my mileage up more during the summer and sustained 45-50 mile weeks for longer, but I didn't decide to start really going for it until October so I've done really well with my mileage considering. The half marathon in November will be fun and will give me an idea of what I can do off this kind of training and I know what I can do to get faster. This weekend Ty and I are running a 15k and my mom is running the 5k earlier in the morning. It will be interesting as it will be the first 15k I've ever run, but it will also give me an idea of where I stand for November. It's also a decently hilly course which will show me how my flat tempo run paces correlate to a hilly race. I'm excited to run a PR on Saturday! That's the great thing about trying new distances, they are always PRs!

My whole 14 mile run pace was 7:35 even with 2 miles at 9 minute pace and my last mile even slower!