Last week was the first “step-back week” on my training schedule. That means I did slightly less mileage in preparation for an increase in the next week. I ran 3m on each of Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday. My cross training on Wednesday was 30 minutes on the stationary bike and a few weights.

On Saturday I was supposed to do 40 minutes of cross training. Instead Matt and I did a 26 mile (42 km) bike ride. Basically we went from Gas Works Park on Lake Union along the Burke Gilman trail to Tracy Owen Station Park in Bothell at the top of Lake Washington and back again. Part way into the trip I got a flat tire. I’d never gotten a flat before so I thought it was pretty neat. That was until we realized that my back wheel isn’t a quick release. We didn’t have a wrench with us so we couldn’t take the wheel off and change the tube. Fortunately we were able to borrow a wrench from a man whose house backed onto the trail. He was super nice and even went back into his house and found a second wrench of the size we needed that he said he’d “had for 20 years and didn’t use anymore” and gave it to us. That wrench has now gone into the set of items I carry around in my pannier.

Mondays are a rest day in my training schedule so I thought I’d use them to summarize the previous week’s training…

Week 3 was a good week for training. Wednesday and Saturday are supposed to be cross-training days. On Wednesday I rode the stationary bike and the gym and then played volleyball. On Saturday I was going to go for a swim but I ran 3 miles instead because getting to the pool and back would have taken more time than I had to spare. So my week 3 total was 15 miles.

Last week I learnt how important feet are to running. Early in the week I was having problems with my right foot. Or my freak foot as I like to call it now. I was having periodic shooting pains in my heel. Some days they were they and some days they were gone. I did a little internet research (I know, that’s dangerous when it comes to medical stuff) and I decided to heel inserts might do the trick. So one trip to Target and $6.99 later I had the inserts. The problem is that because the heel inserts are only half length they really need to sit on top of something else so that you’re toes aren’t rubbing against the actual bottom of the shoe. On Saturday I put them on top of the insoles that came with my shoes. The heel pain was instantly gone. The problem was that the inserts pushed my heels up so high I was worried I might step right out of my shoes. So after that run I hit the drug store and got a pair of cheap thin foam insoles. I used these with the heel inserts on Sunday and life was pretty good. Except the heel inserts are giving me blisters. I think I just need to wear them in a little though.

The other training excitement of last week was mapmyrun.com. My roommate pointed me to this site and it is fantastic. You map out a running route using a point and click map and it totals up the distance for you. So useful!

As I mentioned in my previous post I’m planning on running a half-marathon in Vancouver on May 7. Originally I thought I might train for the full marathon but I’ve decided to just do the half. I figure if I enjoy it then I’ll be in a good position to train for the Seattle marathon next November.

My training began on January 2. I’ve worked out an 18 week program for myself based on Hal Higdon’s Novice training program (which is only 12 weeks). I added a few lighter weeks at the start and a few step back weeks later on. I’m also planning on running two 5-Km races during training just to keep things interesting. As it stands now I run Tuesday, Thursday, Sunday and either run or cross-train on Wednesday and Saturdays. I’m having a hard time fitting any weight training into my schedule though.

The first two weeks of training have gone very well. I missed one run in each of the weeks though. The first was due to horrible rain I couldn’t run in (and I couldn’t make it to the gym to run inside) and the second was due to the fact that it took me 11 hours to get to Victoria last Saturday instead of the expected 2.75. I knew that there would be things that would throw me off my training schedule but I didn’t expect two in the first two weeks! I’m on track for this week though!

19/01/2006 Update: I’ve posted my actual training schedule here in case anyone wants to check it out.