Monday, August 26, 2013

Training Rundown Week ?: Getting Back At It

Last week was the first time I actively crossed things off my training plan in far too long. But with 8 weeks left until the BIG day it's time to hold myself responsible again.

Monday: 40 minutes cross-training: NMTZ
Oh gosh, this was just pathetic. It felt SO HARD. At the end I didn't even have the "well at least I did it!" good feeling. It was just all sorts of bad. Wah-waaah.

Tuesday: 40 minutes running, 8-minute abs 
This week was a built in taper week, since I had the Emerald City half coming up on Sunday, and while I was tempted to push my limits (just because I was finally back to running regularly!) I instead followed the plan to a T. Shorter running days, extra rest days. This run felt good and when 40 minutes was up I desperately wanted to keep going!

Wednesday: 30 minutes running, 8-minutes abs & arm X 2
Birthday run! This was a fun, easy run. I doubled up on abs & arms to give myself a solid hour long workout, because that just seemed right.

Thursday: 30 minutes cross-training 8-minute abs & arms X 2
Originally I had planned to do Jillian again but after the disaster that was Monday (and the fact that I was still sore from it) I didn't want to push it. I kept it nice and light.

Friday & Saturday: Rest
Even though I wasn't racing E.C. I still wanted two solid days of rest. Plus this was my first week really back on my training game and I knew I shouldn't overdo it.

Sunday: Emerald City Half!
I'll be honest- I was not looking forward to this. I felt unprepared and was really afraid that I was going to struggle through (and that would be a big hit to my ego that I wasn't prepared for).  My sister, of Despite My Pancreas, was in town to run the quarter marathon (why didn't I just do that?!) so at least having her around made the whole thing sound a little less miserable. I stuck with what I usually do for halves: a pasta dinner & early bedtime the night before, a small cup of coffee + PB toast the morning of the race. 

Due to the 7a start time, we had an earlier than usual wake up call in order to have (what we thought would be) plenty of travel time. We ended up hitting terrible traffic and struggled to find parking, despite the promise that ample parking would be available. By the time we had parked it was a few minutes after 7 and we didn't even know if we'd be able to run. We made our way over to the starting line and the director was announcing that anyone who could hear his voice would be able to start, so we simply walked to the chute and started running. It was so weird! I had about 2.5 miles with Jen before the quarter and the half split off and we spent most of that time weaving through folks so that we could settle into our own pace. I'll have to say that while that was a bit frustrating (and totally our fault/the traffic jams fault) it did prevent me from starting out fast or feeling tempted to race. Once I was on my own I set my Garmin to only show my HR and just enjoyed the scenery. Honestly, 13 miles flew by! I felt strong, I didn't walk or stop at all, I kept my pace solidly within my long run goal pace and I finished with negative splits! I was even able to pose for photographers (something I have never even thought to do) and sprint to the finish. Even though it was my slowest half yet (2:16 and some seconds) I was more than pleased with the day.

This half was exactly what I needed right now! I'm starting this training week off with a rest day and then diving right back in. I've got a big 16-miler lined up for this weekend and I am already excited for a new PDR. 



1 comment:

  1. Awesome! Congratulations on finishing the Emerald City Half. My hubby ran it yesterday. It was a good race! The crowd was awesome! :)
    Same here with my hubby, he's training for full and he's scheduled for 16-miles this week. Of course, I, the ever supportive wife, running/training with him. :) 16-miles here we come!

    Happy runnings to you!

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