New Shoes: First and most exciting, I have two new pairs of shoes! A pair of Altras (zero drop, wide toe box, cushioned but barefoot-esque because of the zero drop) and a pair of Brooks Pure Flows. I love new running shoes. I was feeling a little more soreness in my other ones, and while it might have been the uptick in my mileage, I realized I have had them for over a year and run two half marathons in them so maybe it’s time to get a new pair.
Missed runs: I missed some scheduled runs this week thanks to a chest cold. I’m proud of myself for not running while sick, but more proud of Greg for being so darn nice to me as my mood continued to deteriorate thanks to the lack of running endorphins and the frustration from missing training. It worked though – I recovered from the cold in under a week, and am back to running!
What next: I did two of the quality workouts I’d missed, a 3 mile run at 9:30 pace and a 7 mile run at 10:00 pace, and then e-mailed Jake to see how I should proceed based on what I missed and how the runs went. I had to take breaks because of some lingering congestion every half mile or so, which is frustrating and a bit demoralizing, but my legs have 10 miles under them at the prescribed paces, so there’s that.
I might not make this 9:30 half marathon goal: I’m feeling nervous about my half marathon goal for November. 9:30s are fast. It was hard running 10s for 7 miles today. I know I’ve been sick. I know I have over two months left. I also know that I’m supposed to be able to run almost twice as far, 30 seconds faster, with no breaks, and that seems insanely unlikely.
But it doesn’t matter. Say I won’t improve enough in time. That doesn’t really matter. The next logical steps are the same, whether it will take me 10 weeks to reach the goal or 20 weeks to reach the goal. I’m still going to try my hardest to progress as quickly as I can with that goal in mind. I have Jake re-evaluating my training schedule every week based on the previous week, so I’m always doing the next logical workout. I don’t have to panic about whether the goal is unrealistic so I should change all my target paces for each run – that’s Jake’s job, and he’s got a lot of experience doing it.
I’m going to keep working hard to become stronger, and I’ll get there. Hopefully I’ll get there by November for the Chilly Half Marathon, but if I don’t, I won’t be less interested in being that fast in the months that follow.
Just… no more colds, please?!
How’s your training going? Are you working towards a specific race or goal, or just enjoying your time on the run?
Glad you are recovering from your cold – what a drag! I’m training for my 11/8/15 half marathon in the suburb where I live. My goal last year when I ran it for the first time was to finish in 2 1/2 hours and I finished in 2:29:02 – now I would love to beat that time. Training is going well so far and I’m sticking to the training schedule. But a lot can happen between now and then, so just hoping for the best!
That’s the same day as the half marathon I’m training for right now! I’m running another one first as a supported practice, but my goal is all about that one on November 8th.
I found that the added experience between running my first and second half marathon really helped, so it wasn’t as hard as I expected to beat my first PR (which was similar to yours, just under 2 hours and 30 minutes). I felt like I didn’t do THAT much extra training between the first and second half marathon, but just the fact that I’d been running distance longer really really helped. I hope you have the same experience and your training goes well and you have a great race!
My next HM is only 4 weeks away and I’m only one week into my training schedule after my kidney stone adventure. All I want to do is beat my old PR, but if that doesn’t happen, I won’t be too upset because I can try again at another HM in October.
I like your new shoes.
That’s the nice thing about fall Half Marathons… it can be almost fun to do two because you’ve sunk the time into training and it gives you a second chance! I’ve done that my past few years and it’s been nice. Like a little extension of the HM deadline. I hope you’re continuing to feel better – take time to ramp up so you don’t overdo it, and good luck with your half! I want to hear how it goes!