Thursday, August 11, 2016

Let the Half Marathon Training Begin


On August 1st I signed up for my first half marathon! I will be running in the Pennsylvania Boston Harvest half marathon on September 18, 2016. Will it be possible for me to run my FIRST half marathon with only seven weeks of training? I know it might sound crazy that I will only have seven weeks to train, but I have strong base mileage and I also feel comfortable running a 10k (half the distance of a half marathon). I have been comfortably running at least 15 plus miles every week and that is why I feel confident and prepared to put together my own 7-week training plan. One way or another I will be ready to conquer 13.1 on September 18th! 


Week 1 August 1 – August 7

Monday: I signed up for the half marathon! I probably should have run today, but I just got home from vacation which meant doing laundry, running errands, sleeping in my own bed, and mourning the end of vacation.

Tuesday: 1.5 mile HIIT workout on the treadmill and 3 sets of 30 burpees. During field hockey pre-season of my sophomore year of high school, I remember having to run a 1.5 miles in 12 minutes. I have never been that good at pacing myself and found myself either running too fast (to the point of throwing up and having to stop) or too slow (for some reason I did not get that if I ran a 10-minute mile I would have to run a 2 minute 800m…I would be an Olympian if I could run a 2 minute 800m!!) during the first mile, thus making it impossible for me to pass this run test. It was thundering and lightning outside today, so I thought it would be more fun to test my speed on the treadmill than run for an hour. I decided I would amp the speed up on the treadmill as fast as I could possible run for 2 minutes then I would walk for 1 minute until I reached 1.5 miles. I finally passed this run test, 1.5 miles in 11 minutes and 8 seconds!!

Wednesday: 4.10 mile run in 42’ 07”. Whenever I get the chance to run with my dad I do. He constantly makes me laugh on our runs and he helps me with my pacing. I like to run my slowest mile first and finish with my fastest mile. By running with him I start off slow and continually get faster.

Thursday: 5k on a hilly route with a 2 mile walk as a cool down with my parents. While I love running with my dad I also need to work on my speed. Today I ran a 26 minute 5k on a very hilly route. As I was finishing my run I passed my parents walking out of the neighborhood, so I decided to walk with them for a nice 2-mile cool down. I leave for college in 3 weeks so I like to spend as much time with my family before I go.

Friday: Cross training and suicides. In the summer I nanny for 2 girls L is 8 and E is 11. They are both soccer players and are working on their fitness for the upcoming season. I usually plan fun workouts for them and today we did 4 sets of 100m suicides with some burpees, an ab circuit, and a plank contest. The winner got to choose where we went for ice cream!

Saturday: Rest day

Sunday: 10k at Peace Valley Park. Running can become very boring if you do not change your scenery every once and a while. I like to do my long runs on routes I have not run on during the week! My dad joined me for this run which made it even more enjoyable!

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