A few “official” photos of our team were put up on the Trivium Racing Facebook page, so I thought I would share!
Here we are crossing the finish line as a team! Jeff was our last runner, but we all joined up with him at the end to finish together.
And after we received our medals!
Go Team Aching Bad!
First week of half marathon training complete! This is going to be short, since I’m out of town.
On Monday, I went out to the greenway for my first day. I planned on taking it easy, but somehow managed to run my fastest 5k time ever, 33:28. Woohoo! Great way to start out.
Tuesday, I flew out of Nashville to go visit friends in Seattle. I did my first Washington run on Wednesday, two miles easy.
On Friday, I went out to Green Lake, which was beautiful. I wore my Blerch shirt, in case I ran into the guy who writes the Oatmeal. (I didn’t.) I took my four miles pretty easy, walking briefly after each mile.
Then I had a 5k race on Sunday, which I will write a full race report for later. I had been constantly on my feet for days at that point, and my feet/legs were pretty stiff going into it, so I didn’t really race it, treating it more like an easy training run. I finished in 35:17.
It was a pretty good first week!
I went out on Tuesday with a lot on my mind. I had three miles scheduled, and I wanted to keep about a 12 min/mile pace on them. I did really good with pacing, only glancing at my watch once or twice during the first mile. I felt pretty good, so I upped the pace a little in the second mile. I still felt good after that, so I pushed a little more on the third. Yes, I completed all three miles without walking and on rolling hills, no less. Woohoo! I did pause once about 0.6 of a mile in to take a picture of a faint rainbow, but I think it still counts that I ran the entire distance. That puts me exactly where I wanted to be to start half marathon training and just in time!
Unfortunately my good runs didn’t last this week. Wednesday’s run was a speed workout, one tougher than the ones I’ve been doing. It consisted of 12 intervals of 90 seconds running fast, 60 seconds recovery. I did it, but not well or all that fast. To put into perspective, my fastest interval was still a minute slower than I’ve been doing on my speed runs (and on the second running interval, no less, so I probably wore myself out) and my slowest was over a 13 min/mile, which cannot be considered a “fast” pace by any means.
After two days off, I hit the road again on Saturday morning for another three mile run. I checked the weather before I headed out and saw that it was chillier than it had been, so I decided to wear running tights instead of a skirt and a short-sleeved dark shirt instead of a light tank. Yeah, it was still too hot for that. I had to take several walk breaks (mostly to drown myself in water) before I finished the day’s run.
This week starts half marathon training, and I have a nice warm-up 5k on Sunday!
Next week I officially start half marathon training! Eek! Per week, that means four runs (three easy runs during the week and one long run on the weekends), one day as a walking cross-training day, and two rest days.
My plan is mostly based on the Hal Higdon Novice 1 Half Marathon Training Plan. I extended it a bit, putting in a recovery week every fourth week and by making my longest run greater than the half marathon distance (similar to Galloway’s plan). Strength training is also to be done twice a week.
I’ll be comparing this table to my actual runs in my weekly updates to keep on track.
| Week | 1st Run | 2nd Run | 3rd Run | Walk | Long Run |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 09.16-09.22 | 3 miles | 2 miles | 3 miles | 30 mins | 4 miles |
| 09.23-09.29 | 3 miles | 2 miles | 3 miles | 30 mins | 4.5 miles |
| 09.30-10.06 | 3.5 miles | 2 miles | 3.5 miles | 30 mins | 4.5 miles |
| 10.07-10.13 | 3.5 miles | 2 miles | 3.5 miles | rest | 3 miles |
| 10.14-10.20 | 3.5 miles | 2 miles | 3.5 miles | 40 mins | 5 miles |
| 10.21-10.27 | 3.5 miles | 2 miles | 3.5 miles | 40 mins | 6 miles |
| 10.28-11.03 | 4 miles | 2 miles | 4 miles | 40 mins | 7 miles |
| 11.04-11.10 | 4 miles | 2 miles | 4 miles | rest | 3 miles |
| 11.11-11.17 | 4 miles | 2 miles | 4 miles | 50 mins | 8 miles |
| 11.18-11.24 | 4.5 miles | 3 miles | 4.5 miles | 50 mins | 9.5 miles |
| 11.25-12.01 | 4.5 miles | 3 miles | 4.5 miles | 50 mins | 11 miles |
| 12.02-12.08 | 4.5 miles | 3 miles | 4.5 miles | rest | 3 miles |
| 12.09-12.15 | 5 miles | 3 miles | 5 miles | 60 min | 12.5 miles |
| 12.16-12.22 | 5 miles | 3 miles | 5 miles | 60 min | 14 miles |
| 12.23-12.29 | 5 miles | 3 miles | 5 miles | 60 min | 10 miles |
| 12.30-01.05 | 5 miles | 3 miles | 5 miles | rest | 3 miles |
| 01.06-01.12 | 4 miles | 3 miles | 2 miles | 15 min | 13.1 miles! |
I did not have a good start to the week. Despite my raving last week about how awesome running is for stress, I had the hardest time motivating myself to get out there on Tuesday. I changed into my running clothes and sat on my couch for a while. When I finally realized it was warmer in my house than it was outside, I got up and walked around a bit. I finally decided I was already out, so I might as well run, but I wasn’t happy about it. As I begrudgingly jogged down the road, forcing myself to keep going, I realized I had bigger problems. With stress, I get some tummy troubles, and I was feeling like I may throw up at any given moment. I tried to sip my water and just keep putting one foot in front of the other, but I quickly realized that wasn’t going to end well. So I walked. I would occasionally try to start up again, but the nausea would come immediately back. Ugh. So I cut my run short.
On Wednesday, I had speed intervals scheduled. I knew I needed to get out there, since it was my last planned run before the relay on Saturday. I picked a hillier route than the week before, and overall I did about as well. My fastest speed interval was at an 8:37 pace (the week before my fastest was an 8:28 pace). By the time I finished, the sun had set, which reminded me that it was starting to get dark earlier and that I’ll have to be hitting the treadmill more soon. Boo!
With Thursday and Friday as rest days, I woke up bright and early for the relay. By bright and early, I mean the sun rose while I was driving there. Yawn. It was super fun, though! If you haven’t already, you can read my recap. We finished our marathon in 5:08, and I averaged around an 11:30 pace, despite the awful hill. Strava says I broke records on my 1k (5:16), half mile (4:12), and one mile (8:48) times! And, oh yeah, I was second shooting a wedding for eight hours after that. I could barely stand the next day, but it was worth it! Our team name (Aching Bad) was definitely spot on for me.
I have a three 3 mile-ish runs planned this week, and then next week half marathon training starts! *cue nail biting*
Progressive Runner 