Week 6 Half Marathon Training Recap – Halfway Point!

Well, we’ve reached the halfway point in two ways.  I’ve finished week 6, and I have 6 weeks left to go.  Also, my long run this week of 6 miles is just under half the distance of a half marathon.  (Next weeks long run of 7 will be just over half of a half).  It’s hard to fathom in a month and a half I will be attempting to run my first half marathon.  Also this week I registered for another race between now and the half and it will be my first race longer than a 5K.  It’s the Winter Flight 8K in Salisbury NC.  I was hoping for a 10K but there just wasn’t one on the schedule.  8K is 5 miles, so I’ve got a general idea from my training how long it will take, and I do know I can finish it, but it won’t be easy.  Here’s a look at this weeks numbers.

Starting weight – 283.3
Running (4,4,6) – 14 miles
Cycling – 5.5 miles
Yoga – 60 minutes
Total mileage – 19.5 miles.
Ending weight – 282.2 (1.1 pounds lost – same 1.1 I gained last week)

So back to losing weight which was good, hopefully that will continue.  The mileage keep increasing.  Next week is 4.5, 4.5, 7 so that is 16 miles total.  I’m going to likely need a new pair of shoes soon and get them in time to break them in before the half.   I’m pushing 150 miles on my Saucony’s and I wore them a long while before I started tracking that on DailyMile so surely they are closer to 200-250.  They will still be great for wearing around the house, so I won’t throw them out, but once the cushioning starts to go and the soles start to wear I’ll have to “retire” them from running.

Week 5 Half Marathon Training Recap

Tough week this week, been tired and sore all week long after my 5 mile Sunday (last week’s long run) then my 4 milers from Hell on Tuesday and a tough Yoga class Wednesday.  Whewww.  Took my long run real easy today and ran with a friend at an easy pace.  Was a good time though, kept the conversation flowing and 5.1 miles and an hour 27 minutes flew by.  Also gained weight this week, but I think I’m seeing some water weight fluctuations.  My big loss last week was almost even bigger, since early week was looking at a 5 pound loss but I “gained” some back over the week, so obviously water weight.  Not surprised I gained a little of it back, but still down versus two weeks ago.  Probably lose again next week and start going back and forth.  Here’s the tale of the tape.

Starting weight – 282.2
Running (4,4,5.1) – 13.1 miles (hey what do ya know! half marathon distance this week)
Cycling – Crosstraining – 5.7 miles
Yoga – 60 minutes
Ending weight – 283.3 (1.1 pound gain)

The 5.1 was from Jennifer’s 10K training who I ran with this morning (my schedule was 5).  I just noticed when I added it up it totaled 13.1 for this week.  Nice week long half marathon! (Now just to do it all at once).

Week 3 Half Marathon Training Recap

Week 3 of my Half Marathon training is now in the books.  It was an interesting week considering it was the week between Christmas and New Years and it ended with a bang with my Midnight New Years run.  I will be a little short on my mileage, since my “long run” was the race, but there are race days built into the schedule, so I just juggled things around a little.  I also had a slight weight gain this week, which I know is not the end of the world, but I just need to kick it into gear here for the New Year.  Here’s the tale of the tape.

Starting Weight – 285.2
Running – (3.5, 3.5, 3.3) – 10.3 total miles
Biking – 5.7 miles
Yoga – 60 minutes
Total miles – 16 miles
Ending Weight – 285.6 (0.4 pound gain)

Overall, was a good week.  had a blast at the New Years race.  Might have to find another one of those wherever I’m living this time next year.  Right now I’m looking at a 5K or an 8K the first weekend in February as the only two local races between now and the half in March.  I’ll have to decide which of the two I want to do.  I had hoped for a 10K before the Half, but I don’t see one on the schedule.

Merry Christmas to me!

I’m very excited! My parents got me exactly what I asked for for Christmas and it’s a training tool! I wasn’t sure if I would get it or not since they are kind of expensive, but I know they support my fitness goals and weight loss so I was hoping a would.  I present to you my newest toy!

A Garmin 305 Forerunner GPS fitness watch with Heart Rate Monitor chest strap! No more trying to track distances, no more trying to remember what time I started and subtract back running time, this will track all of that for me! And it will follow my every movement with the GPS so if I get lost in the park again, or off a selected track it will know where I am and follow me.  In fact, I won’t even have to plan out routes in advance anymore, just get to where I’m going, press start and go RUN!

Thank you so much Mom and Dad! My running and training just got a million times easier and so now I have NO EXCUSES! Thank you for the push and motivation. It will get used and used often!

I hope everyone else has a very Merry Christmas and Happy Holiday season and spend lots of time with your families and don’t worry about what you eat, at least for the next couple days.

Week 1A Half Marathon Training Recap

For the Half training, the long runs are on Sunday’s, but I’m going out of town today so I did my long run last night and I am done with the week.  As I mentioned before, I will be doing this week’s layout 3 times to make up for what would be a gap between the 5K and the Half.  I feel like I did good, although I did cut Thursday’s run short.  I also did Yoga for the first time this week (the reason I was so sore/tired on Thursday).  I hope to continue doing the Yoga and hopefully I will get used to it.  Here’s a look at the numbers.  No biking this week since the compressed schedule cost me a cross-train day, but I had the Yoga instead.

Starting weight – 290.6
Running (3, 2, 4) – 9 miles
Yoga – 60 minutes
Ending weight – 289.4 (1.2 pounds lost)

The Thursday run was supposed to be 3.  Maybe next week I will be able to do the 3,3,4 that’s on the schedule, but 2 is better than zero and if you are tired/sore/hurt listen to your body and don’t force anything.  I rocked the 4 miler on Saturday so I am proud of that.  I didn’t pay attention to all 4 splits, but the first mile was 12:40 and my overall pace was 13:20 so I only slowed down a little bit (even though it felt like I took a couple of LONG walking breaks).  4 miles is my longest run ever, and I was thinking of the 3 miles I’ve been doing in training, but it’s also the first run longer than 5K distance, since 3.11 has always been my max.

Week 1B starts tomorrow…

*EDIT* And totally forgot! This is my 100th post!

Half Marathon Training

Monday starts my Half-Marathon training course in preparation for the Rock and Roll Half Marathon in New Orleans on March 4, 2012.  I am following the Hal Hidgen Novice Half Marathon trainer.  This is a twelve week program, and since I have 14 weeks between now and the race, and to help ease me into my first long distance trainer of any kind, I will be completing Week 1 three times, before advancing to Week 2 and continuing with the schedule.  This schedule also changes my workout days from the 5K trainer I was following.  Now, rather than running Mon, Wed, Fri to prep for a Saturday race, now I will be running Tues, Thurs, Sun to prep for a Sunday race (with an optional run on Wed).  Here’s what the weeks will look like with the week 1 distances.  Week 1 and 2 are the same, Week 3 and 4 are the same and then the distances increase each week.

Monday – Stretch and Strengthen (Yoga? Weights? Haven’t decided)
Tuesday – 3 mile run
Wednesday – 2 mile run or crosstrain (bike, swim, walk etc)
Thursday – 3 mile run
Friday – REST
Saturday – 30 minute crosstrain
Sunday – 4 mile run

Sunday’s will always be the longest run of the week.  I can already see some places where I will need to make adjustments, but the good thing about the Hidgen trainer is it is very flexible.  Christmas Day will be a Sunday this year, so I will have to do my long run on Saturday.  Also, New Years Day will be Sunday, and I will be running the midnight 5.5K race that night.  But the Higden trainer has spots for races in the training, so I will be doing the 5.5K week 3 instead of week 6 and just adjust down the other long runs.  Week 9 has a 10K race, but I’m not sure if there is one scheduled that weekend.  I would like to do a 10K before the half, but there’s not a lot of races scheduled this time of year. 

This is what I will be doing for the next 14 weeks.  Can’t wait for New Orleans! I hope by then I am ready!

Week 5 5K training recap

Today’s run finished up my week 5 training. I’m getting close to the entire distance. Next week starts at 2.75 miles. Here’s a look at the numbers.

Starting weight – 299
Running – (2.5, 2.0, 2.5) 7 miles total
Biking – crosstraining – 9.74 miles
Total mileage – 16.74 miles.
Ending weight – 297 (2 pounds lost)

I knew the weight loss would level out, and that’s ok. I knew 5 lbs a week wouldn’t last.

I had two fantastic runs this week. On Thursday I was doing my 2 miler on the treadmill at the Y, and I did a 2 minute warm up walk and then jogged (4.7MPH) for 5 minutes solid (previous long was 3 minutes)… took a 2 minutes walk break, and then cranked it up again, intending to do another 5 minutes, but after the 5 minutes was up I just kept on going. I jogged for 13 minutes, over a mile at a 12:45 minute/mile pace. Then, today I decided to skip the Y and run outside for my first outside training run. I shaved a slight bit off my mapped out 2.7 mile route to make it 2.5. I started the stopwatch and then stuck it in the mailbox, so I had no idea what my time or pace was while I was going. The cold air made my lungs burn and I was huffing and puffing in no time flat, but I kept at it. I finished my first lap (1.35 miles) in 18:30, so I was feeling pretty good about that, but then the second lap was a little harder, really had to gut it out. I’m expecting around 34 minutes, or a 14 minute mile pace. I jog back up to the mail box to grab the stopwatch and what do I see? 31:31…. A 12:36 minute/mile pace… UNBELIEVABLE. It didn’t feel like I was going that fast, but it also didn’t feel like it took 31 minutes.. much much less tedious than running on the treadmill.

2 weeks to race day… it’s counting down!

Week 3 5K Training Recap

Week 3 is in the books, and it was a little rough.  Due to some extenuating circumstances I had to skip my Monday run, so to make up for it I ran Tuesday and Wednesday back to back to get back on schedule and I had to cut the Wednesday run short because my legs were so tired.  I added back the extra 1/4 mile to my Friday run, but that was tough as well.  Here’s the numbers.

Starting weight: 308
Running (2.0, 1.25, 2.25) – 5.5 miles total
Biking – 8.25 miles (30 minutes, 16.5 MPH)
Ending weight: 303 – Loss of 5 pounds

A slight caveat to the weight loss.  Apparently starting the training made me Yo-Yo quite a bit.  After last week’s gain back to 308, I was back down to 304 on Tuesday and then the 303 was Friday this week.  So while it’s technically 5 pounds it’s probably realistically more like 1-2 (which is fine).

Also, this week as I mentioned in an earlier post I signed up at MyFitnessPal.com which logs food calories and exercise calories and gives you a recommendation of what you should eat during the week.   True it’s not a “diet plan” only a dietician can give you one of those, but it holds you accountable for what you eat. All of a sudden that 400 calorie candy bar doesn’t look so appetizing anymore.

The other thing I did this week is I officially registered for the Go Far 5K at the North Carolina Marathon.  It was on my schedule but now I am officially registered.  I’m looking forward to the “marathon experience” the pre race expo, the post race party, even the 5K finishers get finishers medals.  This should get me really pumped up for training for that half marathon next March.

Check back for post race analysis and pictures after the Nov 19th race!

2012 New Orleans Rock and Roll Marathon – Training

Long time no blog, but yes I am back and I am about to embark on an adventure to kick start my running career again.  Two months ago I signed up for a membership at the local YMCA and I’ve been doing a lot of walking/jogging on the treadmills there and started thinking about running a race again. 

I’ve decided I am going to run the half-marathon at the New Orleans Rock and Roll Marathon on March 4th 2012.  Most of the inspiration for this is my friend Amanda over at Eat to Live, Live to Run will be running the race as her first full marathon.  Her and her husband have run several Half marathons and this will be the first full marathon for both of them.  The other reason is looking at the calander, I have just enough time to start training for a race in March.  Here’s how this is going to work. 

First I am going to go through a 5K training course to get me back into running shape as well as improve my 5K times/endurance.  The Half marathon training course starts you out week 1 at running 3-4 miles so they assume you already can handle a 5K distance.  The 5K training is 8 weeks and starts today.  This will finish the week of Thanksgiving.  I had planned on running a Thanksgiving day race, but so far the only one scheduled is in Lexington NC which is about an hours drive away.  It looks like they have had one here in Winston in years past but I don’t see it posted yet.  The weekend before however (Nov 19th) is the North Carolina Marathon in High Point NC.  They include a full, half and 5K.  I will definately run the 5K here and see what it’s like for the “marathon experience”.  According to the website even the 5K runners get to attend the expo and after race parties and even get a finishers medal, so that will be fun.

The half marathon training course is a 12 week program.  To slot into a March 4th raceday the program would start Dec 11th.  So there is a two week gap between the 5K training and the half marathon training.  What I will most likely do is the week 1 of the half training multiple times.  Either do week 1 twice and week 2 twice, or week 1 three times and then week 2, week 3 and so on. 

Of course the overall goal of doing this much cardio is to loss weight.  Finishing the half marathon is just the icing on the cake.  And that will be my goal, finish.  I don’t care about time or pace or winning or any of those things.  Just pound out the 13 miles and finish. 

It’s a long race to the finish.. and it starts today!