Workout Recap: Half Marathon Training Weeks 7 & 8

Let’s breeze through Week 7 recap (Spoiler Alert – nothing much happened), and then rejoice in the awesomeness of Week 8!

Week 7: 2/3/14 – 2/09/14

Wednesday: 3.55 miles on the treadmill, 12:46 min/mile. I think running on the treadmill has been contributing to occasional back pain, so I’ve decided if I’m stuck inside for a run I’m going to take it slow and easy.

Thursday: 3.30 miles, with two miles tempo, 11:25 min/mile.

Every other day of the week: nada

Run miles: 6.85

Overall: A week of low motivation and the rainy weather we’ve been waiting for coincided with a step back week. I wish I could work up the energy to be disappointed, but I spent it all on setting PR’s in Week 8 :).

Week 8: 2/10/14 – 2/16/14

Monday: 5 miles, 11.19 min/mile. The fog rolled in and made it feel otherworldly.

Tuesday: Foam Roll/Rest

Wednesday: 3 miles, 9:55 min/mile. PR city (unofficial)!! This is the first time I’ve finished 3 miles in under 30 minutes. I guess there’s some benefit to training after all! I’ve always felt that 10 minute miles were my own personal obstacle to get past, so it felt pretty freaking amazing to accomplish this. Don’t ask me to maintain it for long, but damn it, I can do it!

Thursday: Rest. My legs felt good, but I figured I’d give them a day to recover from the faster than average pace.

Friday: 3 miles, 11.14 min/mile.

Saturday: Rest

Sunday: 9 miles, 11:57 min/mile in perfect running weather. This is my longest run to date, and I loved every second of it. From this point forward, every week will be a new personal best for me in terms of distance, which is kind of cool. 9 miles felt better than 8 miles, and I can feel how far I’ve come in terms of endurance and fitness.

Run miles: 20 miles (probably my week of highest run volume?)

Overall: Today marks my two month period of training for my first half-marathon, and it was so rewarding to see how far I’ve come this week. I should have tried this whole concrete training plan thing earlier!

Always, Sierra

Are you training for a spring race? Or planning a spring fling get away?

 

Race Recap: See Jane Run 5K

If you remember from here, my goal for the See Jane Run 5K this past Saturday was to get under 35 minutes…and I did it! Hello, PR!

Final results: 32:59, 10:37 min/mile

Age group: 73/184

Female: 463/1,573

I dropped by the race expo Friday evening to pick up my race packet.

This was my first race expo and I was eager to check it out. A bit on the smaller side, they still had lots of fun booths to explore. Tri Sports Jewelry and Apparel had some shirts I fell in love with.

The motivational quotes See Jane Run had sprinkled around were also a nice touch.

I was in and out of the expo pretty quickly and onto other important things…like carb loading!

With a start time of 8:30 a.m., I woke up Saturday around 6 and had plenty of time to nom on a whole wheat english muffin with almond butter and half a banana. I picked up Y around 7:15, and we didn’t have too much of a struggle with street parking even though it was pretty close to start time.

We started warming up just as the half marathoners took off. Thanks to ample porta potties (at the start and finish), we made a trip through the lines relatively quickly, and snapped a pic.

And then it was time to start!

Although the 5K had a start time of 8:30 a.m., they had us line up in waves so we wouldn’t trample each other like wildebeests. The first wave (closest to the start) was anyone under a 9 minute mile, the second wave was a 9-12 minute mile, and the third was a 12+ minute mile. The waves were pretty loosely defined, and I was impressed by how orderly we all were. Each wave started about two minutes apart, and I felt like it helped to reduce stampeding.

I took off with the second wave, and of course I went out too fast. I was excited! And it didn’t feel fast! At first. I managed to slow my roll and rein it in a little after the first mile, but that was mostly due to how hot it was and not so much because I showed self-control. When I finished it was 66°F! I know that doesn’t sound like a lot, but I was feeling it.

I picked up the pace with about a half mile to go and pushed hard to the finish line. I’m pretty proud of that and was excited to see that 5Kers got a medal too. My first race medal! It’s tiny but I love it.

I’ve been struggling between being proud of pushing hard to meet my goals, and disappointed that I’m still what I consider slow. It’s easy to get caught up in the comparison game. I would never tell a friend, “Good job finishing, but your time’s not that great compared to the other 72 people ahead of you”, and yet that’s what I’ve been telling myself.

And then thanks to the powers that be, last night I came across the Mental Muscle article in the new Runner’s World.

Really, the only person I’m comparing myself to is me. Considering my last 5K time was 42:16, I don’t have a lot to be disappointed about. It took hard work to come this far, and I’m not afraid of the hard work it’ll take to keep improving (and step up my mental game!). I’ve got a hunger to keep chipping away at that pace. Until I get there, I’m celebrating this PR! I earned it!

A quick shout out to Y, who absolutely nailed it and got 5th in her age group! So proud of her!

And also congratulations to A for finishing her first 5K, even if she did get have to battle pink string near the finish line.

Overall, the event was well-organized, and the swag (chocolate and champagne) was delicious. I did think they could have used better signage to point out where the “goody bags” were at the end of the race. They were handing them out in a tucked away corner, and a lot of people were juggling all their swag in their hands cuz they hadn’t seen where the bags were. We didn’t check any of our stuff in the bag check, but I didn’t hear any complaints and the system looked pretty efficient. I’d definitely run a See Jane Run race again, maybe the half marathon next year?!

Always, Sierra

How was your weekend?

How do you keep your head in the game and avoid comparing your performance to others?