Half Marathon Training: The First Four Weeks

Hi everyone,
I am going to try posting more regularly again (my goal is every Thursday and Sunday), and the only thing I could think to post about today is the first four weeks of my half marathon training, so hopefully you find it interesting!  :)

Jesse and I did a couple 5Ks in the summer/fall, and we trained pretty regularly for these runs, but after those were finished, my mileage really took a dive.  Before I started officially training for the half marathon, I was running about 5 to 10 miles per week.  Sometimes less if I really wasn't feeling it that week.  However, I really wanted to do the Lincoln Half Marathon this year on May 5.  I was inspired by my friend Tory who ran the half marathon last year, and I knew I would be disappointed if I didn't sign myself up.  So even though my mileage was nothing to brag about, I dove in.

Jesse and I decided to take a marathon training course at the UNL Rec. Center, and with that class we get customized training plans from our teacher.  Here is the plan I received at the beginning of my training:

Click to enlarge...
XT = cross train
ST = strength train

The training plan started out simple enough, but I was a little intimidated by the 4 mile "short" run and 5 mile long run in the last week.  My plan, however, is to run/walk the half marathon, so I got the option in my plan to do intervals, especially during the long runs.  This plus the fact that I was able to take a couple weeks to work up to those runs, helped me become confident that I could finish this plan successfully.

Here is how it turned out...

What I accomplished in those four weeks.  Again, click to enlarge.
Super Circuit = interval based strength training

During this four weeks, I tried each run day to get in a bit more mileage than what was called for.  Sometimes it was just a quarter of a mile, but most days I did about half a mile more, which helped me feel on top of things and also even more accomplished.  I also felt then like I was getting to my goal just a bit faster.  :)

I still have more bad running days than good running days, but now when I have "bad" running days, they are still pretty good.  Last night, for example, Jesse and I planned to run 3 miles, and we wanted to include some speed work in our running.  We got the 3 miles done, but we did too much speed work too soon and burned out during the first mile.  It took another whole mile to recouperate, so we felt pretty defeated.  But at the end of the run it turned out that we still made 3 miles in 38 minutes, which for me is pretty darn good.

I am a slow runner, but I have come to terms with this.  As long as I am out there getting my miles in, I am happy.  If I just happen to run faster than normal, of course I am happy, but that isn't what I aim for.  My goal for each run is the same as my goal for the half marathon: start and finish.

Well, I think that is all for now, but I will keep you updated as we continue on with our training.  Right now we are working on doing more hill and speed work, as well as figuring out what kind of fueling works best for us on our longer runs.  We have a little over 2 months to go, so there is plenty of time to tinker and keep working on finding our running selves.

Until next time,
Amy