Half marathon training – Week 11 – Tough Tempo
This last week of half marathon training had some ups and some downs. All the easy runs went fine but Wednesday’s tempo run wasn’t really a confidence builder. My training program gave a target of 8:30 min/mile for the 4 tempo miles. I was looking to do between 8:23 (pace for a 1:50:00 half marathon) and 8:30. I just could not get sub 8:30. I came close but I felt sluggish and slow the whole time and I felt like I was working way harder than should have been necessary. Then I of course fell into the trap of “if I can’t run 8:23 for 4 miles how am I ever going to be able to do it for 13.1 miles?” I’ve managed to talk myself out of that one. I know that a taper week, rest and race day adrenaline can work wonders.
Saturday’s long run was great. It was about 8C and sunny which is ideal running weather. I figured I’d do 10-12 miles but decided to cut it off at 10 because I didn’t want to risk running my legs into the ground one week before the race. I decided to try and run by feel instead of obsessively tracking my heart rate. As a consequence I ended with a slightly higher average heart rate than my previous long runs but it was nice to just go out and run easy.
| 21/04 | - | Rest day |
| 22/04 | 5.0 miles | Easy run: avg 156 bpm, 11:45 min/mile |
| 23/04 | 6.0 miles | Tempo run: 4 miles @ 8:33/8:35/8:33/8:31 |
| 24/04 | 5.0 miles | Easy run: avg 154 bpm, 11:27 min/mile; IM Softball |
| 25/04 | - | Rest day |
| 26/04 | 10.0 miles | Long run: avg 161 bpm, 11:27 min/mile |
| 27/04 | 4.0 miles | Recovery run: avg 156 bpm, 11:39 min/mile |
| Total | 30.0 miles | YTD: 396.4 miles |
This upcoming week is my taper week. I went back and looked what I did before last year’s big races (Ottawa, Victoria and Fall Classic) and it was always some combination of a 3 miler, a 4 miler and a 5 miler (with 3 miles at tempo). My current plan calls for slightly more mileage but I’m tempted to go with what I know. Honestly, what’s another few miles going to do for me at this point?
Now onto race day weather. Until this morning things were still looking good for Sunday. Then out of nowhere the word SNOW appeared in the long range forecast.
I’m not freaking out yet because I fully expect this to change. And if it doesn’t it’s not like I haven’t run in the snow before! We’re still a few days away before Sunday’s weather shows up on some other forecasts. Until then I’m working on a comprehensive packing list that prepares me for any race day weather!