Half marathon training – Week 7 – Shoe hierarchy

13/08	-	Rest Day
14/08	6.0 miles	Easy run: avg 9:38 min/mile
15/08	6.0 miles	Tempo run: 4 miles @ 8:42/8:27/8:27/8:14 min
16/08	XT	45 min on the elliptical machine & light weights
17/08	-	Rest Day
18/08	10.1 miles	Long run: avg 10:05 min/mile
19/08	3.1 miles	Recovery run: avg 10:43 min/mile
Total	25.2 miles	YTD: 711.4 miles

I have now reached the half way point in my training for the Royal Victoria half marathon. Only seven more weeks to go! I finally registered for the race this week. My transportation to and from Victoria is also now booked. I’ve been studying the course map and reading the webpage to collect all the data I can. The most important thing I’ve learned so far is that, as is typical of Canadian races, the course will be marked each kilometer and every 5 miles. Even though I’ll have my Garmin I’m thinking about converting to kilometer pacing for this race. A 1:59:55 half marathon is equivalent to a pace of 5:41 min/km.

In other news, I think it’s time to retire my second pair of Brooks Adrenaline GTS 6s. I’ve had this pair since January but since I always have 2-3 pairs of shoes in rotation they’re only at 342.5 miles. In this case that’s 59:08.18 hours of running! I was hoping to get 350-400 miles on them but they seemed pretty flat on Saturday’s long run so it’s time for them to be demoted down a rank in my shoe hierarchy:

1. Shoes being broken/saved in for racing
2. Shoes being used for everyday training
3. There are two possible paths here:
   1. Shoes that stay in my locker at the gym for use in cross training
   2. Shoes to be used as street shoes
4. Shoes that live in Ottawa for use at the cottage or mowing the lawn