Half Marathon Training Diaries Week 4: Making Friends with the Treadmill

If you’d like to read the previous weekly recaps, here they are:

• Week 1: Kick-off, Goals, and Base Training
• Week 2: Feeling like less than Superwoman
• Week 3: Easy Week + Sweetheart 5k

Looking back, it feels like the beginning of this week was ages ago. It was a busy week, but it was super productive!

This week totaled out at exactly 20 miles, which felt awesome. I haven’t crossed the 20 mile weekly total since last Fall when I was getting ready for a 5k that I set my current personal record at. My weekly mileage has hovered between 15-20 miles for several months now, and I think it’s time to bump my average up to a new normal over 20 miles per week.

It looks like from here on out, my training plan calls for weekly miles all over 20 miles per week.

I also totaled way more miles than usually this week on my Run the Year 2019 challenge, and I think it’s mostly due to taking my new puppy, Ginger, on a walk every day.

Ginger is a 6-month-old Rhodesian Ridgeback mix, so she has tons of energy and needs regular exercise, but she isn’t old enough to start running with me yet. We’ll do a few strides in the middle of our walks for her to practice running beside me, but she’s too young for a sustained effort. I don’t want to risk damaging her growth plates, because she’s going to be my running buddy for years to come!

This week of half marathon training went just as planned (for once!)

Monday

Scheduled: 3.5 miles easy

What I Did: 3.50 treadmill miles.

I was chilled when I got home from work on Monday, so I opted to do this run on the treadmill. I played around with the speed and incline just a little to keep myself from getting too bored. After I finished this run, I jumped off the treadmill to grind out a 10 minute abs circuit.

After 10 minutes…well, my abs were dead. I usually suck at getting abdominal and strength workouts in, so I’m trying to make them a regular appearance at the end of my easy runs.

Sit-ups, bicycles, leg lifts, and Russian twists were my pain of choice Monday.

Tuesday

Scheduled: 35 minutes Tempo Run

What I Did: 3.43 miles in 35:50

This was another speed workout that went great!

I’m actually really impressed with how close I was on time to my goal, because I just guesstimated where to turn around at and figured it would be about right! My pace started slow for the warm up, I slowly pushed it up to a strong cruising pace, and then backed it off and the end for an easy cool down.

Honestly, I don’t remember that much about how I felt during this run

I was mentally rehearsing how to react to the car I thought was following me. At first, I thought nothing of it because it just sitting in a parking lot at the edge of a pond I sometimes run around. As I ran on the far side of the pond, they moved up another 100 feet along the road and then stopped. They slowly moved around the pond and up to the road to leave, and I figured all was find and they were leaving.

They seemed to wait at the stop sign far longer than necessary to turn onto the road. When I came around and just before I exited the loop I slowed down to see which way they would turn, figuring no matter what I had planned, I would turn the other direction. They turned left before I got to my decision point, and I turned right as I had originally planned. After I turned right and crossed the street, I saw them pull over on the side of the road out of the corner of my eye and thought “Aw hellll no!”

I checked back over my shoulder after a few strides and saw them attempting to turn around, but there was quite a bit of traffic so it took them awhile and I just kept running. I decided that if I saw the car again, I would call my husband and keep him on the phone in my ear so I could tell him if he needed to come get me or not…but I really wanted to finish my run. Every 30 seconds or so I looked back to check for the car, and I never saw them again.

The reality of running self-defense

Were they really following me or was it just a coincidence? I’m not sure, but I’d rather not find out. Either way, something changed because they quit following me.

This is real and something every runner needs to consider. By mentally preparing, you can plan your reaction in case something does happen. I wrote all about self defense while running in another post (before this happened), but it’s definitely worth checking out.

            Related: Running and Self-Defense: What to Worry About and What Not to Bother With

Despite the unwelcome distraction from my run, I still felt like a rockstar at the end. My speed days are the ones where I really notice the 80/20 running principle for this training cycle working. My body is reacting well to this philosophy. I’ve been able to get all of my planned miles in, and I still feel fresh enough to crush my speed workouts.  

Wednesday

Scheduled: 3 easy miles

What I Did: 3.00 treadmill miles

Before I even got off work Wednesday, it was snowing. Nasty, slushy, slippery, cold snow. Not even the dry light stuff–I could’ve run outside if it wasn’t so sloppy and slippery.

Again, I opted for the treadmill. I am super grateful that I got a quality treadmill last summer to keep in my basement, it makes it so convenient for me to still do my miles even when the weather sucks.

After the 3 miles, I did about 15 minutes of leg strength exercises. Squats, lunges, push-ups, and calf raises. As mentioned above, I have previously sucked at doing any kind of strength workouts when I’m focused on building up mileage, so I’m getting it in where I can!

This didn’t seem like much strength work, but my legs were pretty sore the next day…