Monday, February 20, 2012

Half Marathon Training Week 1 - 2/13-2/19

At about 12 weeks out from the UC Half Marathon, I made the decision to run it final by signing up.  Clicking that "submit" button is equal parts scary and exhilerating.  Running a half means a lot of hard work, a lot of training time, and a lot fun.  I ran my first one in November (you can read about it here) and couldn't wait to run another.

I signed up and was ready to start a 12 week training plan when, on the morning training was to start, I was rushing to get ready for work. I turned to hurry out of my bathroom and I kicked the door frame with my left foot.  OUCH!  No bruising, no swelling, but it still hurt. However, it wasn't extremely painful; there was kind of a dull soreness at the base of the littlest 2 toes, which would increase when I tried to bend the toes.  I decided it was probably a good idea to take some days off from running to allow any injury that might be there to heal.  After 5 days of rest, I ran a 2 mile test run and the foot felt ok, and the rest of me was totally thrilled to be out on the road again.  The training could begin.

The first 2 runs of the week were awesome.  I felt strong and surprisingly fast.  A late meeting at work one day threw an extra rest day into the schedule, which was a little annoying at the time, but ended up just fine.  Friday was a long hard day, and I used my run as a therapy session.  Then came Sunday, my  long run day.  I was totally unmotivated and it took me 2 tries to even get dressed in my running clothes.  But I ended up heading out the door with no gadgets ("naked" as runners tend to call it), no GPS to map the run, no watch to time the run, no ipod with music, no nothing.  Just me, my shoes, and the road. (It felt pretty good).

Monday 2/13 - Tempo Intervals - 4.05 miles
Tuesday 2/14 - Hill work - 2.08 miles; quick abs & arms workout
Wednesday 2/15 - scheduled running rest day; NTC ab burner workout
Thursday 2/16 - extra rest day (late work meeting)
Friday 2/17 - Progressive run - 4.01 miles; quick abs & arms workout
Saturday 2/18 - scheduled rest day
Sunday 2/19 - Long run - 6 miles
Total Miles: 16.14

More details of all the runs can be found on Daily Mile, if you're curious (my profile is here.)

No comments:

Post a Comment