Half Marathon Training: Week 2 Re-Cap

Tuesday:  Got myself up and out of bed for the first time EVER this summer and went for a nice morning run for my slotted 3 miles EZ.  I opted for 8/2 intervals and got some decent speeds for each interval in the 10-11min range.  My right knee started really hurting at 2.5 miles and I felt like I ran/limped my last half mile.  Other than that, the run was great, mostly just proud of myself for getting out of bed.  Trick: slept in my running clothes.  No lie.  12:06 pace.

Thursday: Set off for an early evening run and planned to do 8/2 intervals around and adjoining neighborhood.  I think I definitely found a good hill for some hill repeats.  (Guess that’s why there’s the word “Hill” in the neighborhood’s name?)  This run didn’t start off well with arch pain and when my knee pain from Tuesday hit me with a vengeance at mile 1.5, I called it a day with 2 miles and cut the slotted 4 mile EZ run in half.  I went home and did some knee stretches and exercises and called it a night… My knee REALLY hurt when I went to straighten my knee anytime that night, so I’m glad I didn’t push it… even if I’m sad to have gone off plan.  12:10 pace.

Saturday:  Jon and I actually skipped this run unintentionally.  What was meant to be a quick rearrangement of stuff in my mom’s garage so that I could put some of my packed boxes there vs. my bedroom ended up turning into a full scale clean up of the garage… that filled ALL our garbage cans plus a few boxes… and that was only half the garage.  Jon plans to attack the rest when he’s in town at the end of the week so that we can have an epic garage sale this weekend.  We also went and saw Harry Potter 7 Part II for a hot date since Jon has been diligently watching the other 6 movies in preparation for the past few weeks.  I cried a lot during the movie… just like when I saw it the first time. 

Sunday:  Jon and I overslept (unsurprisingly) and we set out for our run at noon.  There were a few moments of cloud cover, but mostly this was a run in the sun.  I am REALLY not good with running in the heat (will need to work on this before moving to Alabama, that’s for sure) and I really struggled with this run.  Jon was patient as ever as we stuck to my suggested LSD pace of 13:00-14:00. 

Even that pace was REALLY difficult for me in the sun and, while the first 2.5 miles were pretty easy for me, the last 2.5 were the hardest I’ve had since I tried to run on Auburn’s campus too late in the morning last summer.  Not going to lie, it was a REAL struggle (read almost wanted to cry) to finish this run and I did walk a few times (though no official intervals).  Jon and I had originally planned to shoot for an extra mile (making it a 6 mile EZ over a 5-mile EZ to make up for Saturday), but I couldn’t do it and he graciously walked with me the rest of the way home.  I’ve never had a run be this hard—I came home after and we tried to get lunch together and all I could get down was a cup of milk and a few bites of yogurt.  I actually felt sick… I’ve never had that happen before.  I did feel a bit more justified about being effected by the heat when I went to put on PJs last night and noticed that I had a sunburn in the shape of my running tank.  So there.  Best parts about this run: running and spending time with Jon, keeping a consistent pace, and most of all: no knee pain.  I think the extra day of rest really helped. 

Overall:  This week was just OK for running.  It’s a lot harder getting back into it than I thought it would be, but I have faith that if I can just push through this, I can actually get to a point where I enjoy it again.  Right now, definitely not enjoying it.  Here’s to Week 3:

     •  3 miles EZ

     •  5 miles w/ 2 miles @ tempo (between 11:23-11:53… see above)

     •  3 miles EZ (Jon and I are thinking about doing this hilly interval workout Sat night)

     •  6 miles LSD (13:02-14:02)

Total mileage: 17 miles!  Woo!

Graduation Week!

So far, a decently productive day, though I feel a huge headache coming on as I continue to stare at this computer screen for hours on end. At least I have half of my last final paper of undergrad written. Oh, Racine and Corneille, I'm just not feeling you two today.

Although it was painful, Jon and I did manage to drag ourselves out of bed at 5:30am for our morning run. We seem to have gotten a decent routine down for mornings that we run: get up at 5:30, eat breakfast/pack lunches, run from 6-7ish, then shower and get ready/out the door by 7:30am. Well. Oiled. Machine. It's ironic though that on the days we sleep in, regardless of giving ourselves the required hour to get ready/out the door, we always manage to be late. Hmm...

Speaking of breakfasts, I've recently stumbled upon Special K's Protein Plus cereal, and I'm in love. It has a slight cinnamon-y flavor so it's not bland, and I can mix a cup of that with a 1/2 cup of Fiber One Original and cover it with a cup of almond milk for a whopping total of just 2 points. I've become a huge fan since the mix of high fiber + high protein keeps me full from 5:30am until at least 10-11am (when I can have a quick snack).

Okay, gushing aside, this morning's run went well. We're still keeping with the 40 minute time-frame, so I'm going to try and speed it up instead before forcing myself to get up even earlier to start adding more time. Ideally, I'd love to get to a 6.0 pace, since I'm currently averaging at around a 5.45, but we'll see. We're still kicking around the goal of a half in September, but I'm really uncertain as to whether or not I think I can be ready in time.

Anyway, here's the photo/stats from our run. I'm using a screen grab from Jonboy's runkeeper since I was too lazy to plug in my Garmin this morning. Definitely better than our pace on our last run (where I thought I was going to die).



To wrap up, I know today isn't my weigh in day, but I was pleased to step on the scale this morning and see a 170.8 glaring up at me instead of a 175 (from the other day) and then a nice 169.8 after my run. Whew. I really can't wait to get back to the 160's so I can hopefully get into the 150s this time. I'm feeling good being back on track. Tonight I'm going to make a moroccan chicken recipe from one of my WW cookbooks, I'll take photos and let you know how it goes--it sounds delicious!

Oh, and two quick questions since I've been thinking about investing in a food scale.

1) Do you use one and, if so, how often?
2) Do you have any particular models that you would recommend or specific criteria I should look for?

Thanks!