This week was another week at the grind. I felt good the entire week. My training schedule has become routine but I think that’s a good thing. I have talked a lot about staying consistent with my training.
Breakdown:
Lately both Monday and Tuesday have been easy runs. For about half the runs I don’t use Garmin or time the run. I just do what feels the best. It’s the main reason I run similar if not the same loop. When I run the same loop, I know how far I’ve run and don’t have to worry about time.
Workout Wednesday (this week):
4×1 mile repeats with 2 minutes rest (6:05, 6:11, 6:16, 6:14)
I felt pretty good during the entire workout. I will say mile repeats are hard! This week I added an extra mile to my workout. Obviously that gives me a total of a 4 mile workout versus 3 total miles of hard running. I actually felt like I had more in the gas tank at the end of the workout. I will hold my workouts to 4 miles until I inch closer to the 6 mile pace.
I have been focusing on the home stretch because I know that’s where my racing lacks. I don’t have the power or endurance to kick it home. In each run (easy run or workout), I spend the last quarter of a mile picking it up. My hope is that it will increase my turnover! In the last two weeks I’ve felt the benefit of that.
This week I ran easy on Thursday too. I took Friday off since my race was today. Sunday races throw me off, however, many of my upcoming races are on Sunday so I better get used to it.
Saturday I ran easy with Tim. We’ve been getting a lot of running in together. We ran then immediately drove down to Virginia Beach. By we drove, I mean he drove.
Then today I raced the RnR Half Marathon. As many long time readers know, I ran this race two years ago before moving. The interesting aspect about the race two years ago was I had been hit by a cyclist who broke my arm!
Today was about as I expected. I haven’t RACED a half marathon since April 2014. I ran both Harbor Lights in November and Shamrock (1:33 in much better temperatures) but both were around injuries. I haven’t raced a half since I blew up at the New Jersey half marathon.
Today I ran the RnR half in 1:31.50. I’m very pleased with that. I haven’t been doing half marathon specific work. I’ve run several long runs between 13-15 miles. RnR Va Beach is always a hot and humid race. Today the weather was 80+ degrees with 90% humidity! When I ran 2 years ago I was in the best shape of my life and ran a 1:28 so I’m proud of this!
Mileage: 70
Workout miles: 17
Thoughts: I am really happy with these week. It’s making me hungry to continue training because I know I’m slowly but surely improving and getting back to my fitness of 2 years ago.
Next week: I desperately need an easier week so that is what I’m doing!
Anyways enough rambling, I’ll have a race recap up sometime this week. Unlike 5ks, half marathons leave me laying on the couch all day and catching up on the social medias.
I hope everyone has a happy Labor Day Weekend.
Questions for you:
What is the hottest race you’ve ever done?
RnR VA Beach (either 2013 or this year) or the Save the Alamo half in 2013
How was your week of training?
Congrats on the great half time! I haven’t run many races in extreme heat, just extreme cold and I think my legs just go numb after a certain point.
Congrats on the half marathon finish! Go get a slice of red velv and watch some
TV! Or go rent a movie from redbox! I’m just working and relaxing this weekend. Tomorrow I work, too, but I don’t mind! My knee is bothering me a bit which makes me nervous but… gah, that’s life.
Ohhh man I bet it was burning up at that race! I can’t believe how hot and humid it as has been here in VA!
The humidity has been tough all week I think!
Congrats on the race!
Yaya for another great week! My training schedule is starting to feel routine too, which is definitely a good thing like you said–turn on “autopilot” and get it done.
Yes, half marathons are bloody hard! They are by far my least favourite distance. At least if a 5 or 10K goes wrong you only have to tough it out for a short amount of time, but a 13.1 mile sufferfest is just torture. I know because I’ve run over half a dozen of said sufferfests in the past 18 months…and they don’t have the satisfaction of ‘well, at least I still finished’ in the same way that a marathon does. All I remember is the shame of doing badly, probably because there are so many people who are awesome at half marathons in the blog world.
Anyway, you definitely didn’t do badly and in those temperatures you ran a brilliant time. I would have died by the second mile just walking in conditions like that. Congrats on another strong race – I’m sure there are plenty more to come 🙂
I looked at the race results bc one of my friends placed in Top 10 for males and I looked up your time as well- and you did really well! Especially considering you ran a track workout this week and did a lot of running. Seems like it was a good race and it always feels good to have a good race even in the heat. Congratulations and hooray for not being too far off from 2 years ago!
My hottest race was a July 2011 race called the Hot Dam 5K. It was over 100 (race started at 10 AM to add to the heat factor) and it was on a dam so we had the added sun, no shade, etc. One guy passed out and several others had to use the ambulance. I think they discontinued that race the next year too…
I ran the M-town series this past summer, in Memphis, in the evening, and it was so miserable all 4 races-NEVER again!!!! Congrats on your race!!! I hope to get back to running this week, my leg just won’t cooperate.
You did so well!!! I was trying to compare which weather was worse, this year or two years ago, both were hot and I think half the runners think the rain helped and half think it didn’t. Either way it was awesome to see you. Wish we had more time though!! Congrats on a strong and speedy half!!
RnR of 2013 is the reason I don’t do that race anymore. I did the relay with my stepmom and it was absolute torture. I despise running in the heat, and that was just unbearable. Sounds like you had a solid race, and I’m sure it was fun!
I was laughing at the title because YES half marathons in the heat are so hard! As you know, I ran one yesterday and ugh it was HOT but I was happy with my result as well. Keep up the hard work and the temps at RW will feel like a dream!…I hope!
Congrats on your awesome half – great attitude! Funny, I’m running a half this weekend and it’s not the distance I’ve been training for so I’m not tapering. I am scheduled to also run about 70 miles and that made me a little nervous with the Sunday race. I have a track workout on the schedule for the week, too. Reading your post made me feel better about what I have planned! Anyway, you rocked it. You are such an inspiration! And mile repeats are ROUGH! I have some next week and it should be interesting… 🙂
Amazing pace, Hollie!! That is so tough in the heat- I don’t know how you did it! I always wilt and feel awful in humidity. Congrats!! And yes, I know what you mean about seeing progress and it making you hungry to keep training… I feel that drive coming back for me too… slowly getting back to my pre-baby paces!!
Thanks Laura, that means a lot. I can’t wait to see you at Runners World!