Half marathon training – Week 6 – Double digits!

06/08	-	Rest Day (Travel to Victoria)
07/08	5.0 miles	Easy run: avg 10:21 min/mile
08/08	7.0 miles	Speedwork 3x1600m @ 8:08/8:14/8:08 min
09/08	-	Rest Day (Travel to Seattle)
10/08	XT	60 min on the elliptical machine
11/08	10.1 miles	Long run (no pace, Garmin ran out of battery power)
12/08	3.1 miles	Recovery run
Total	25.2 miles	YTD: 686.2 miles

On Saturday I did my first double digit mile run since the marathon. I set out intending to do the 9 miles on my schedule but less than a mile into the run my Garmin ran out of battery power. I had recharged it on Wednesday in Victoria but I think it must have accidentally turned on in my luggage on the boat back to Seattle and drained the battery. I was planning to do a 4.5 mile out and back course but without the Garmin I didn’t know where the turn around would be so instead I decided to do my tried and true 10 mile course. I did the run by feel without any knowledge of my pace or specific timing for walk/water/gel breaks. I’m too type A to do this every week but it’s nice every once in a while.

When I did the Vancouver half marathon last year my longest training runs were two 10 milers in the two week preceding the race. For the Seattle half marathon I did an 11.5 miler two weeks before the race. I’ve now done a 10 miler a full 8 weeks before the race. I am very excited about this. Granted 1.5 of those 8 weeks will be mostly lost to a short trip to Europe I have planned with my mother. Still I feel pretty good about where my weekly and long run mileage is right now. I feel like I have a lot of room for improvement in the speed department, especially if I want to beat 1:59:56, but hopefully that will come with more time and training.