Half Marathon Training Diaries Week 8: Full Transparency

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

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

1st Week: Kick-off, Goals, and Base Training

2nd Week: Feeling like less than Superwoman

3rd Week: Easy Week + Sweetheart 5k

4th Week: Making Friends with the Treadmill

5th Week: Just Keep Running

6th Week: Focus on Recovery

7th Week: Refining My Fueling Strategy

This week didn’t feel nearly as awesome as last week, but I guess not every week can be amazing. Most of my runs felt like they were dragging. I think the only really good run of the week was my tempo run on Tuesday.

Every week is a part of the process, good or bad.

I’m officially a month out from the Salt Lake City Half Marathon!

Monday

Scheduled: 4.5 miles easy

What I Did: 5.00 miles easy

Monday was REALLY rough. Like I was dragging my feet. I let myself go SUPER slow because I knew this run was all about recovery and base mileage. My calves were ridiculously tight from skiing the day before and well, I was exhausted from a busy weekend.

You might wonder, then why the heck did I do an extra half mile?

Haha…not on purpose, that’s why!

I use MapMyRun to GPS track my distance while I’m running and announce my splits every 0.50 miles, so that usually triggers me turning around when I get to a certain point.

My brain was clearly not working because I remember thinking at the 2.00 mile split, “Ok, just one more half mile and then I get to turn around.” Except…this was an out-and-back run, so I needed to turn around at 2.25 (aka I needed to pay attention), not at 2.50 miles.

Thus, I didn’t realize this until I was at 2.48 miles, so I just went the full distance.

Running shoes half marathon training
When I realized I had gone too far…

Overachiever? Maybe by accident…

Oh, and I didn’t do my ab workout today…

Tuesday

Scheduled: 40 minute tempo

What I Did: 4.17 miles in 41:07 minutes

This run was SO MUCH BETTER than Monday’s run!

My tempo run was full of energy. I actually hit a pace faster than my most recent 5k pace at several half mile splits in the middle of this run. Feeling this great, I’m thinking I need to run another 5k race soon and see if I can beat my PR…

Except I have a 10 miler race on the schedule for next week, and a couple more long runs after that before the Salt Lake City Half Marathon. Looks like the 5k PR is going to have to wait.

I’ve never actually run a 10 miler before, so I’m guaranteed to PR, right?!

Wednesday

Scheduled: 3 easy miles

What I Did: 2.00 easy treadmill miles + 13 mins leg strength

Yowzers. Another day where it was all I could do to drag my feet along.

Utah got hit with some nasty weather Wednesday (although not as bad as Wyoming and Colorado!), so I opted for some treadmill miles. I’m not sure why this day was such drudgery, but the miles ticked by WAYYY slower than they normally do (even for a treadmill). I just couldn’t make it the full 3 miles.

Yup, this. This right here!

After I tapped out and quit the treadmill, I decided to put some extra effort into my leg strength workout, which actually felt pretty awesome. I did 3 sets of squats, donkey kicks, side leg raises, glute bridges, and calf raises to round out my workout.

Thursday

Scheduled: Rest.

What I Did: Rest.

Yup, rest day. It was also Pi Day (3.14), so my co-workers made a spectacle of bringing in tons of pies. I had two half slices of pie (thus one full slice, trying to keep it reasonable) and some pizza.

Not the healthiest but hey, it’s Pi Day!

The rest of my day at work was rather stressful and exhausting. My husband felt the same way. So… “Rest Day Thursday” turned into “Thirsty Thursday.”

Not my finest moment of self-control but hey, I’m a real person and you should know that I really enjoy wine. Like I REALLY love wine. I strive for discipline and typically only drink on Saturday nights, but I’m definitely far from perfect.

Friday

Scheduled: 5 miles at half marathon goal pace (9:55 min/mi)

What I Did: Nada. Zip, zero, zilch.

I had actually taken the day off work Friday because I wanted to catch-up on my to-do list at home, make some big changes to the blog, and most of all take a mental break from work. This week has just flown by and I feel like I didn’t actually get all that much done.

So I didn’t have to go to work Friday which is a good thing BUT…Thursday “hung around” until Friday morning, if you catch my drift.

I was actually quite ticked at myself for that and not proud of it, but I believe in honesty and transparency. That’s what happened this week.

Thus, I didn’t get my run in Friday. I almost ran later in the afternoon, but my husband really wanted to spend time with me and I really didn’t want to risk getting sick out in the middle of what would have definitely been a terrible, soul-crushing failure of a pace run. I opted to rest up for my 10-mile long run Saturday morning.

Saturday

Scheduled: 10 mile long run

What I Did: 10.01 long miles of awesomeness

Saturday morning was absolutely beautiful! I even talked my husband into joining me for this 10 mile run…which he regretted about halfway into it.

And I totally forgot to take pictures. I meant to, I really did. And then we just got absorbed into the run and conversation and…pictures never happened.

This run was (unfortunately) not as awesome as last week’s 9 mile long run. I practiced my fueling strategy again, but I just wasn’t feeling so great. My pace was quite a bit slower but that’s okay. I think I learned my lesson this week and I’m going to keep the wine to a reasonable moderation lest it affect my training…

Either way, we got the 10 miles done and in the books!

Sunday

Scheduled: 60 minutes cross training

What I Did: 50 minutes hiking with the dogs

I REALLY wanted to get some hiking in with how beautiful it’s been this week.

My husband and I decided to take the dogs up the mountain for a hike, thinking maybe that would tire them out.

We started up a steep trail into the mountains, but about a half mile in, the trail turned into solid ice. Going up wasn’t terrible but once it got slippery, we knew we had to turn around. Trying to skate on ice while a 90 pound dog is pulling you…not exactly the safest. After we walked all the way back down the trail to the car, we turned and headed out on a different trail before that got too icy and we came back.

All in all, around 50 minutes of brisk walking in the great outdoors on a beautiful, crisp morning!

(Again…I forgot to take pictures. I think I need a personal photographer to follow me around and remember the pictures…)

What is your favorite cross training activity?

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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 –>

3 thoughts on “Half Marathon Training Diaries Week 8: Full Transparency”

  1. Really solid week! I find as training progresses I tend to have more and more of those sluggish days, as my body is feeling the cumulative mileage but then taper will work it’s magic!

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