Half Marathon Training: week 6 recap

Week 6 is under my belt!! My Half Marathon is getting closer by the day and I realized this week that I have become so attached to my training schedule, I truly will miss it when it’s over!  I have written previous posts about making alterations to my training program due to travel, work, and life but for the most part I have become quite accustomed to waking up each day and looking at that trusty piece of paper to find what my task is for the day.  When I’m done with the day’s training, I take a lot of joy in putting a HUGE check mark on the day.

  It gives me that extra sense of accomplishment to see those check marks add up over the days and weeks.  Looking at that sheet of paper has also given me a palpable reminder that I have been putting in the hard work necessary to complete a half marathon.  When I start to doubt my abilities and start questioning my skills, all I have to do is whip out my tattered sheet of paper and I see the proof there in black and white.  I have been putting in the work, I will reap the rewards.

One day at a time, one foot in front of the other (both literally and figuratively) I will make it to the finish!

Half Marathon Training: week 1 recap

As I stated in a recent blog, I am in the process of training for a half marathon.  This is something I have always wanted to do, so I guess you could say I’m crossing it off my “bucket list”.  For those of you who don’t know, I am running the Smuttynose Rockfest Half Marathon on October 2nd (just shy of my 30th birthday!!).  I decided to go with a 9 week training program because I am already able to log several miles without a problem, and 9 weeks will be the ideal amount of time for me to work on building endurance, shaving time off my mile, and getting myself mentally prepared to run 13.1 miles. 

The training program I am using is the Hal Higdon Half Marathon Training program.  I am using it as a skeleton and adjusting it a bit to fit my schedule and add speed/hill workouts.  So far, so good.  The thing I realized in Week 1 was that training (of any sort) takes a LOT of planning.  I work out 6 days a week with no problem, but always have the flexibility of switching things up, or doing what I want when I want.  Having to keep track of runs and log X amount of miles per week is a bit more challenging.  I have had to block off specific time during each day for my workouts to make sure I have enough time to stretch, warm up, run, and cool down.  I find that if I don’t do so, its VERY easy to get sidetracked by other things.  I was in Maine this past weekend and had to be very disciplined to run my long run (5 miles) while I was there.  But I did it on Friday instead of Sunday, when I knew I had a bit of extra time.  So I think being flexible a bit with the program will be key. 

I also realized that it will be nice to have a buddy to run with when the mileage starts getting up there! I signed up for this race with a good friend, so its nice to have someone to talk with about the training, and also to help out with mental motivation.  Thank you Heather 🙂

Week 2 is under way and going well! Will give a report next week! 🙂