Right now I'm both deep in the heart of half-marathon training as well as my latest running origin story. The progress and self-achievement during the origin story phase of training is tantalizing. It's like riding a wave... I'm just trying to enjoy the ride and hang on for as long as I can.
My mind-frame around this training cycle has been more tempered than previous ventures into fitness. I'm hoping that by maintaining a longer term view I can ride this wave all the way to the shore. This half-marathon training cycle has been a good example. At this point I really don't have a hard time goal in mind (although realistically I'd guess somewhere between 1:35 and 1:40). My main goal for this training has been building miles and getting stronger and more resilient. Mostly easyish miles with not too much fast pace work. Mainly just using the half-marathon as a carrot to lead me to proper conditioning so that I can really start training once spring rolls around and really not planning on hitting peak fitness until July/August for some fast 5ks.
Right now summer is far away as we are officially into winter but go figure, yesterday was a beautiful day. Great day for a long run outside.
15.06 miles
2:02:18 duration
8:07 pace
Just so good to run outside after 2 weeks! Hit the first mile at 7:57 and then started to slow down. 8:15, 8:26, 8:15, 8:25, 8:27 for the next 5 miles. At the 6 mile mark I had gotten through 2 podcasts and was ready to pick up the pace... lately I've been dabbling with some faster cadence running. It's not clear if 180 strides per minute is really a magic number but some camps feel this way so I figured I'd try it a bit. My natural cadence is definitely a bit slower but I don't know exactly what. Anyway, to up my cadence I have some 180 bpm house music qued up in my watch and I decided to try that for the next 45 minutes of the run. I hit play and picked up the turn over.
Picking up the turn over really picked up the pace (go figure)… Mostly I felt pretty damn good, cruising along. Definitely felt better then the first 6 miles...
Mile 7: 7:53
Mile 8: 8:05
Mile 9: 7:52
mile 10: 8:00
mile 11: 8:00
after ~mile 11 the music was finally over and my heart rate was in the high 160s. At this point my legs were getting tired and I was ready to ease up a bit so I put on my regular running playlist and tried to stay loose and keep my form good as I cruised in to the finish.
mile 12: 8:08
mile 13: 8:07
mile 14: 8:05
mile 15: 7:51
Pushed the pace that last half mile for a strong finish. I was exceptionally tired yesterday and took a couple hours to recover. Then walked the kids to the park. Didn't feel full energy but the walking definitely helped loosen things up.
This morning I'm still sore but talked myself into 45 easy minutes on the bike so I could chip away at the couple hours left of riding I have set for my yearly goal.
Hit some new training milestones:
- Added a mile to my farthest run
- Added 7:49 to my longest run
- took 17 seconds off my fastest half
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