Half Marathon - Week 16

Weekly Total: 38.8 miles.  Another quality running week which is doing wonders for my confidence.  I ran my tempo/pace run at 8:00 min/mile even with a severe cramp. Also, I celebrated my 29th birthday this weekend by running the half marathon course in Boston plus some.  It was a lot of fun and the course is much flatter than what I train on daily so I am feeling really good.  4 weeks left to the big day and now I am just going to work on sharpening, hopefully down to an actual 8:00 min/mile pace on race day.

Monday: 10 Hill Repeats @ 7.0% & 8mph. 6 miles.
Tuesday: 57 minutes easy. 6 miles.
Wednesday: 38 minutes easy. 4 miles.
Thursday: Rest.
Friday:  64 minute pace run w/ 1M pickup. 8 miles.
Saturday: Rest.
Sunday: 2:04 long-run. 14.8 miles.

Half Marathon - Week 15

Weekly Total: 38 miles.  Great week of training. Solid speed work and some real quality miles.  I am feeling much better now that I got my 3rd race distance long run of the training and held a pretty good pace of 9:00 min/miles throughout.  Also, had a really good pace run on Sunday despite feeling a little heavy in the legs during the first mile or so.

Monday: 2x[800@8:30; 400@8:00; 200@7:30; 1200@9:00]. 6 miles.
Tuesday: 57 minutes easy. 6 miles.
Wednesday: Rest.
Thursday: 2:05 long-run. 14 miles.
Friday:  38 minutes easy. 4 miles.
Saturday: Rest.
Sunday: 64 minute pace run w/ 1M pickup. 8 miles.

Half Marathon - Week 14

Weekly Total: 32.7 miles.  The start of the week was great with lots of quality miles including 8 miles at a sick 8:00 min/mile pace.  However, I may have pushed it a little too hard on Thursday as Friday I came down with a nasty head cold and was forced to lighten up my long run.  I have 3 longs at 13+ scheduled so as long as I get those in I should be fine.  Still trying to figure out what pace I am going to try and run at the half marathon, going to probably be 8:00-9:00 depending on how I am feeling that morning.

Monday: Rest.
Tuesday: 8 Hill Repeats @ 6.5% & 8mph.  5 miles.
Wednesday: 52 minutes easy. 6 miles.
Thursday: 8M pace run w/ 1M pickup. 8 miles.
Friday:  Rest.
Saturday: 1:40 long-run. 9.7 miles.
Sunday: 42 minutes easy. 4 miles.

10K Groton Road Race 2011 - So close...

I ran my first race since January this week and I had forgotten just how much fun it was!  It was also my first race that my son Colin attended, so it made it that much better to know he was out rooting for dad.

As for the race itself, I came in having two goals. First was to run under 54:00 minutes or a sub-9:00 pace and the other slightly more lofty goal was to try and break 50:00 or a sub-8:00 pace.

My final time was 50:05.

I wish I had know that it was going to be close so I could have pushed a little harder, but at least now I know I could do it.  The course was definitely tougher than my previous 10K and had ton of rolling hills and some really windy sections.  By far my favorite part of the race was the last mile or so, where I started to turn it on and just started passing everyone as they ran out of gas.

Half Marathon - Week 13

Weekly Total: 28.2 miles. A lighter week of training this week and my first race since the beginning of January.  I had some quality runs this week and was very happy with the pace run on Wednesday that was 8 miles at roughly 9:00 pace. Next step for me is to figure out what pace I want to target for the race in May as I originally thought 10:30 but now its look like I should aim lower.

Monday: Rest.
Tuesday: 2x2M@8:30; 3x200@7:10.  5 miles;
Wednesday: 8M pace run w/ 1M pickup. 8 miles.
Thursday: 52 minutes easy. 6 miles.
Friday:  42 minutes easy. 4 miles.
Saturday: Rest.
Sunday: 50:05 - 10k road race. 6.2 miles.

Half Marathon - Week 12

Weekly Total: 33.8 miles. Another solid week of training and my 2nd training run at race distance. I am starting to really get the hang of running distances of 10+ miles. Also, I was able to get in both a full 10k at sub-9:00 pace in preparation for my upcoming race.  I am hoping I can drop the pace down to at least 8:30 for the race and come in under 50 minutes.

Monday: Rest.
Tuesday: 8 Hill Repeats @ 7.5% & 7.5mph.  5 miles;
Wednesday: 10k pace run @ 8:50. 6.2 miles.
Thursday: 52 minutes easy. 5 miles.
Friday:  42 minutes easy. 4 miles.
Saturday: Rest.
Sunday: 2:07 long run. 13.6 miles.

Half Marathon - Week 11

Weekly Total: 33.1 miles. Not sure if it was the lighter than normal week last week or that I was finally not feeling sick but I busted out some serious running this week.  In addition to some quality speed and pace runs during the week this is my first time ever running a half marathon.  It was definitely brutal but part of that is probably because I ran the first 10k at a personal best averaging sub-9:00 miles.  I am starting to feel much better about the race in May and really looking forward to seeing what I can do at the 10k in Groton as I am going to push hard and see if I can run a sub-54:00 10k.

Monday: Rest.
Tuesday: 2x1M @ 9:00 + 2x800 @ 8:00.  5 miles;
Wednesday: 42 minutes easy. 4 miles.
Thursday: 5 miles @ 9:50 + 1 mile pickup @ 9:00. 6 miles.
Friday:  Rest.
Saturday: 2:11 long run. 13.1 miles.
Sunday: 55 minutes easy. 5 miles.