Half marathon training – Week 12 – Time to Race!

Posted by Cecilia on Thursday, May 1, 2008 · Leave a Comment 

2008 Vancouver Half Marathon Training - What Actually Happened

This morning I did my last training run before the Vancouver half marathon. My focus is now on arriving at the starting line as well rested, fueled and hydrated as possible.

I’m really curious to see how I do in the race. As I’m sure you’ve heard by now, this year I’ve been doing my easy and long runs at a significantly slower pace and lower heart rate than in years past. This has been a constant source of frustration to me and unfortunately to this point I’ve seen no improvements in my training pace at a fixed heart rate. A good race would go a long way in encouraging me to keep up with this style of training.

I usually set three goals going into every race I run. This time I’ve set five goals mostly because the first three, while all meaningful, are based on very close finish times.

  • Goal #1: The dream goal – <1:50:00
  • Goal #2: Take 20 min of my 2006 time – <1:50:42
  • Goal #3: Set a new PB – <1:51:59
  • Goal #4: Beat 2 hours – <2:00:00
  • Goal #5: “Whatever your 100% looks like, give it”

The last goal is borrowed by a Nike ad (I found a picture here) which I admit is a little lame but it sort of stuck with me and I think it will be good to carry with me if things go badly.

My plan for the race is to try and maintain a pace of 8:23 min/mile for as long as I possibly can. I expect the first mile to be slow due to congestion at the start and I know I won’t be able to run that quickly up the Prospect Point hill but hopefully things will average out. If I blow up then I’ll just push to the finish at whatever pace I can maintain. This is my sixth half marathon so I see no reason to play it safe!

I’m not sure what my connectivity will be like in Vancouver but I will try to post my results as soon as possible. You should be able to check the official results by going to the Vancouver Marathon website and clicking on the “Race Results” tab on the left.

28/04 - Rest day
29/04 4.0 miles Easy run: avg 154 bpm, 11:47 min/mile
30/04 5.0 miles Tempo run: 3 miles @ 8:33/8:26/8:12
01/05 3.0 miles Easy run: avg 157 bpm, 11:31 min/mile; IM Softball
02/05 - Rest day
03/05 - Rest day
04/05 13.1 miles Half Marathon race day
Total 25.1 miles YTD: 396.4 miles

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