Half Marathon Training Diaries Week 6: Focus on Recovery

Thanks for stopping by my half marathon training series!

Currently, I’m training for the Salt Lake City Half Marathon on April 13th. My week 1 post has a comprehensive overview of my goals for this race, my training plan and philosophy, as well as my previous base training before starting this training cycle.

Half Marathon Training Diaries Focus on Recovery

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

This week went fairly well, and I’m one week closer to the Salt Lake City Half Marathon!

My knees felt a little funny when I would run at a quicker pace this week and I couldn’t find a local 10k race to do. Thus, I decided to focus on taking it pretty easy this week and allow my body to recover. I’m going to be pushing the miles up in the coming weeks, and I need to be ready for it.

My weight loss has sort-of stalled out this week. I wasn’t super motivated to stick to my calorie plan, so I ended up eating extra things here and there that ate away at my deficit. When we went grocery shopping at the end of the week, I bought lots of good veggies and lean meats to snack on for the coming week! I’m determined to meet my goal of 150 pounds by April 13th.

Monday

Scheduled: 4 miles easy

What I Did: 4.03 miles at an easy effort + 10 min abs

Dang it seemed SUPER windy on Monday!

Maybe it was just because Spring has hit Utah and I was able to run without my headband on my ears blocking the wind out. Either way…I was trying to listen to my podcasts and the wind seemed to be blowing like crazy and right into my headphones.

Windy running day
It might’ve been windy, but look at those mountain views!

I did this run at a truly relaxed pace, averaging 11:35 minutes per mile. After I got back to the house, I added 10 minutes of abs on top of this workout. This included pushups, 30 second planks, bicycles, sit-ups, and leg lifts.

Tuesday

Scheduled: 40 minute tempo run

What I Did: 4.01 miles in 41:06

This run felt really rough.

The first part of the run went fine, and then my stomach started acting up. The faster I increased my pace for the tempo, the worse it got. I actually had to stop and walk several times in the second half of the run. I think I ate my afternoon snack too late in the afternoon, causing the upset.

The other thing making the run feel difficult was that my legs seemed like they just wouldn’t turn over as quick as I wanted them to. I felt like I was going slower than usual. My toes hurt in a weird way by the time I got back to the house, and I’m not sure how to describe it, but I just knew. It was time to retire that pair of shoes.

asics running shoes
I loved these shoes, but they are done with their running career.

I was trying to track the miles on these shoes with the Gear Tracker on MapMyRun, but for some reason, the app doesn’t let me add shoes for treadmill workouts logged after the fact. Thus, I’m sure I missed a ton of treadmill miles put on these babies over the winter. But I can feel when they’re done. And these ones were done.

Wednesday

Scheduled: 3 easy miles

What I Did: 3.07 easy treadmill miles + 10 mins leg strength

I pulled out one of my new pairs of Saucony Iso Triumph 4’s from my closet today (I bought 2 new pairs when Dicks had a crazy sale!) These miles were an easy effort, but I was still surprised when my splits were 30 seconds faster than the pace I was shooting for. I averaged just over 11 minutes per mile on this run.

After my run, I did 10 quick minutes of legs. Squats, side leg raises, glute bridge, and calf raises. Then I stretched my calves a TON because they were feeling really tight after this run.

Thursday

Scheduled: Easy run or rest.

What I Did: Rest.

I was in some kind of cranky mood on Thursday, and it was nice to take the day off. I actually took a nap when I got home from work in the time I would normally do my workouts. That helped set me straight. A nap was the perfect fit for my recovery theme of the week!

Friday

Scheduled: Rest

What I Did: 3.04 miles easy

Ok, my schedule got a little messed up this week because I couldn’t find a local 10k race. Also, my knees had been feeling a little weird, so I decided to focus on just getting easy miles in this week, and building my fitness for the weeks to come. I made sure to keep my pace really easy, since this was supposed to be a rest day.

Nice and easy run on Friday

Saturday

Scheduled: 10k Race

What I Did: Fun group run with my Run the Year 2019 Salt Lake City Group! 5.00 miles at a moderate pace

We had an hour group run scheduled with the Run the Year Salt Lake City Group and lunch afterwards. I didn’t really have any expectations going into this run. My focus was on recovery and taking it easy, while relaxing and having fun. It was pretty chilly out, but I ran on a trail that I’ve never ran before and we had a great time!

Great group!

Sunday

Scheduled: Rest

What I Did: 35 minute brisk walk with my husband and our dogs

Ahh…a relaxed Sunday. I got to sleep in and make waffles for breakfast!

My husband and I spent the day cleaning up around the house, and then we took our dogs for a much longer walk than normal. My Rhodesian Ridgeback puppy was SUPER excited to go on a walk today, and they were wound up tight. By the time we got back to the house, they were both worn out.

This walk was perfect to get some easy recovery exercise in and get ready for the week of training ahead.

I’m looking forward to taking them both on Sunday hikes for my cross training when it gets warmer and the snow melts off the trails!

Keep Reading –> Week 7: Refining My Fueling Strategy

Do you ever scale back your training to focus on recovery in the middle of a training cycle?

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RunningMyBestLife

Run Happy,

Alexis

About Me: I’m Alexis, Founder of RunningMyBestLife! I am an avid recreational runner, half marathoner, wife, dog mom, busy professional, downhill skier in Northern Utah. My mission is to help new enthusiasts fall in love with the sport of running. I believe that running is a catalyst to taking control of your life and living your best life by design. Learn More –>

2 thoughts on “Half Marathon Training Diaries Week 6: Focus on Recovery”

    • More often than not, runners are trying to push harder rather than rest their body. I’m focused on running for life, injury free. So while my miles might not increase as quickly or my times aren’t as fast as some, I’m happy to take it slow and steady!

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