Four Weeks to Go!

Four weeks from tomorrow I will be running my first Half Marathon.

I can't wait! That means I only have two more weeks of hard training. After that I get two weeks of taper leading to the race. Can I do it? You bet! Last Sunday's long run was 13.4 miles, in the dark, while raining, and over hilly terrain.

Now, just because I can do it, doesn't mean I am taking the next few weeks of training lightly. Here's what the next two weeks have in store:
2/6 9 mile long run
2/8 6 miles with intervals (4x400, 2x800, bleachers)
2/10 7 mile tempo run
2/11 2 miles easy
2/13 15 mile long run
2/15 6 miles with intervals (2x200, 2x400, 2x800, bleachers)
2/17 7 mile tempo run
2/18 2 miles easy
2/20 17 mile long run

After that I head into my taper until the race.

Bidwell Classic here I come. My goal: finish! I'd love to come in under 2 hours, but finishing is the main thing.

Speed Kills!

Speed Kill! At least they say to teenagers who drive too fast.

Well, speed also kills your running plan. Of course, I'm talking more about my little setback--hurt my lower abs all because of last Friday's speed workout and then running my long run on Sunday a little too fast.

So, what speed should I be running? I found a great tool over at McMillan Racing that calculates your proper training paces based on a previous race result. In my case, I plugged in my last 5K time and it spits out this incredibly detailed report that predicts my time in any length race (assuming I've put in the training) and gives me my goal times for training.

Now, I already knew that I did last weeks sprints too fast. But after checking the running calculator, I saw how fast is appropriate. Real numbers: last Friday, I was doing 100m intervals at 18-19 second pace; I'm supposed to be doing them at 22-24 second pace. My long run was also a problem. Sunday, I ran 13.4 in 2:15:00 which works out to 10:04/mile pace. I stoked that I CAN do that, but I should have been closer to an 11 minute mile.

Speed Kills!

Running Through Injury

Last week my regular training schedule was in flux. I spent Monday through Wednesday at a Pastors' Prayer Summit. While I was there, I met another pastor who has 11 marathons under his belt. We planned a run early Tuesday and went out for a quick 6. The next day we ran another 4. So that left my usual speed workout day for later in the week.

On Friday I went to the high school track and did some speed intervals (a weekly part of my training plan). On deck that day were 4x100m ad 2x200m. As I was putting in the rest of my mileage for the day I threw in one more 200m aerobic interval. I think I was a little too aggressive on the sprints--soreness in my quads and lower abs.

Sunday's long run was to be 13.4 miles. Here in Paradise, CA there is very little flat ground and the route I chose for this run had a lot of ambitiously rolling hills. Apparently the combination of a tough speed day followed by a hilly long run really strained my lower abs. Spent the rest of Sunday and Monday doing the "old man shuffle."

So yesterday I knew I had to take it easy. My friend Ryan wanted to do an easy 2 mile run in the morning. He's just starting to run again and his training has him alternating running/walking. Let me tell you, I was thankful for every one of those walk portions. That evening I put in another 1.5 miles just to keep my mileage up. I felt so much better.

There is a something kind of cool and counterintuitive about running through the minor strains and pains of running. Of course, I've been through other difficulties other this training program--shins, knees, IT band, hams--and so far I've found that a lot of listening to my body and a little research (to find out how to address issues as they come up) enables me to keep on truckin'!