Hi, hello and hola!
How is everyone's Thursday going? (I can't believe it's already Thursday, I love it when work weeks start on a Tuesday!).
I wanted to pop in and give you guys a quick update about how my half marathon training is going. I posted a recap of my first week of training and haven't posted one since because, well, there wasn't much to update. I was just running...a lot.
I created my half marathon training plan in an excel spreadsheet so it's broken down into what I am supposed to do on each individual day. This week marked my sixth week of training and I'm feeling much better than I did during the end of week five and the beginning of this week. Last week was when I really started feeling like my body had taken a serious beating.
Come Sunday morning, the idea of putting my running shoes on and having my feet pound into the pavement sounded horrible. I think the combination of my runs + walking so much during our trip to San Antonio completely wore me out by the time Monday rolled around. I felt tense, sore and exhausted. I decided to see if a massage would rejuvenate me.
Since I was off work on Monday for Labor Day, I headed over to Massage Heights after my 3.5 mile run (which I totally forced myself to do) and got a 90 minute relaxation massage.
I had my therapist focus on my back, shoulders, legs and feet. I honestly felt like a brand new person after I left. She told me that the tension in my shoulders and upper back was caused from not adequately stretching my chest. Going forward I plan on spending more time stretching each day. However, I'll admit that I've never been good at stretching pre or post workouts.
Now, on to my training.
I feel like after the first two weeks of training, my schedule lacked structure. I was having trouble finding a running schedule that I liked. It was not until this week that I think I've found something that works for me. Here is what my schedule looks like for this week:
After this week is all said and done I will have ran 5 out of the 7 days and logged 17 miles which will be the most I've ran in the span of a week during this training.
Yesterday I did a modification of this shoulder + tricep workout:
After I was done in the weight room and my arms felt like they were going to detach from my body, I set out to do some cardio. I was going to do some cross training (elliptical, cycling, etc.) but decided to do some speed work on the treadmill. I did 800 meter repeats for a total of 2 miles. Basically, I ran 800 meters (a half mile) as fast as I could and I recovered for the same amount of time that it took me to run 800 meters. I did that until I logged 2 miles total which took me about 21 minutes of running and recovering. I was running each 800 in about 4:30. After it was all said and done, I was a sweaty beast.
I'm not going to lie, yesterday's speed work sucked. I was struggling, but I've read that doing speed work is really beneficial when training for a race. So, I'm planning to dedicate Wednesdays to speed work going forward.
This evening I have another 3.5 miles on the agenda + some kind of strength work. I may do back and biceps, or some core work, I haven't decided yet.
Tomorrow I will do 40 minutes of cross training, most likely the elliptical or the StairMaster. Saturday's are dedicated to my long runs, so I will be doing 5 miles bright and early Saturday morning. Sunday I plan on sleeping in and resting, which I am very much looking forward to.
All in all, I think my training is going well so far. I'm getting nervous because I'm seeing the distance I have to run on Saturday's slowly increase. Say a little prayer for me as I tackle those 5 miles on Saturday!Labels: Half Marathon
