Half Marathon Training: Week 6

Also known as the week of the never ending cold. I mentioned in my last post that I had come down with an annoying cold. By Monday it had moved from being a sore throat and cough to total congestion so I took a Nyquil in hopes of being able to actually sleep that night. Tuesday morning I woke up feeling great. Apparently my cold just moved from me to my husband (sorry, Honey!). He was over it pretty quickly, but on Thursday our youngest woke up with the cold and it hit her hard. She clearly felt miserable and because she is so young there’s not much we could do to make her comfortable. I tried the steamy bathrooms and a humidifier in her room, but any relief was minimal. It was awful to see her feeling so crummy and I felt terrible that I had passed it to her. It’s now Sunday and she’s finally starting to feel a little better (fingers crossed). But now I have it again! Aghh! Lysol, Zicam, tea with honey, lots of fruit, rinse and repeat. Hopefully this is the last of it for all of us.

Other than our colds, the week was pretty good. I even won something from Mizuno on Instagram!

I have no idea what it’s going to be and I don’t really care, I’m just excited that I won something! In other Mizuno news, I’m happy to say that either the metatarsalgia pad I got itsworking or my new shoes just needed to break in, because I haven’t had any discomfort with them in the week or two. Phew!

Weekly Training: March 14 – 20

Monday: 3M @9:30 + 30 minutes of stretching & MYRTL

Tuesday: Plan: 2 x1200 @7:38 (2 min RI), 4x 800 (2 min RI) – Actual: 1M w/u @9:32, 6x800m @7:30 w/ 90 sec RI, 1.5M c/d @ 9:15 = 6M @9:15 overall- Finally a speed workout that felt good. In fact, it felt pretty easy.  Not sure if it’s the confidence from my 5k that if I could run faster for 3.1 miles than I surely could run 800s at this pace or taking a timed walking RI like described in the plan (usually I slowly jog an equal distance RI), but these felt easy. I didn’t feel like running 1200s so I switched it out with next week’s workout.

Wednesday: Plan: 6M Easy – Actual: 6M @9:23 – Since I’ve been struggling with boredom on the treadmills I switched from listening to a podcast to watching Live! with Kelly & Michael on the treadmill TVs and it helped the time pass quickly.

Thursday: Plan: 1M Easy, 2M MT, 1M easy, 2M MT, 1M Easy – Actual: 1M w/u @8:36 5M @7:56 (8:09, 7:59, 7:57, 7:52, 7:45) – This was really, really hard. Given my newest 5k I looked at Run Less, Run Faster and the McMillan Running Calculator for my training paces and both had my tempo pace at 8 min/miles. This was a lot faster than I had been running them, but I decided to give it a shot. My husband was working from home that morning so when our little one went down for a nap I was able to get in this run outside. Thank goodness! There’s no way I would have kept the pace on a treadmill given how hard it felt. On the plus side, it was a beautiful day outside and I was so happy to be running out in the sun. Again I switched this week’s workout for next week’s instead. 

Friday: off – After running each of the last 6 days I was happy to take a rest day. 

Saturday: Plan: 10M @ HMP+20 – Actual: 10M @8:29 – Just wasn’t feeling it. I hadn’t slept well and had to set an alarm to get this run in early due to a packed day. Like usual, I tried to figure out a way to put it off when my husband reminded me that I was already up and would be happy to be done, so I might as well just do it now. Can’t argue with that! I finished my coffee and headed out the door. It wasn’t a terrible run, just sort of blah, although I started feeling better half way into it. At mile 7 I passed a guy who I’d run by in the opposite direction on my way out. He said hi and commented that I was speedy which totally made my day and put a little pep in my step. Funny how just a few nice words from someone can improve your spirits – and your pace. 

Right after getting home I quickly ate an egg sandwich to refuel and off we went to a kid’s fun run that was going on nearby. Once we got there my oldest said she didn’t want to run and seemed nervous. I told her she didn’t have to run, but did she want to just check it out. We ran into a classmate of hers who was running and that was enough to get her to change her mind. The best part was she had the HUGEST smile while she was running! Once it was over (which it was in less than a minute since it was a 100m dash) the real fun began – they had a lollipop pull, stuffed animal adoption center, and games set up and we ran into a ton of local friends. 

Sunday: Rest – My sister-in-law and I were going to run again, but my knee was bothering me a bit late Saturday so I decided to take a rest day. It worked out well since my cold came back and I could use the extra rest. 

Weekly Total: 31 miles