Week 1, Can I Do This?

Sunday: 8x800m @ 9:00 pace with 1:07 recovery (1/4 total pick-up time for recoveries), pick-ups done at: 9:00, 9:01, 8:53, 8:56, 8:56, 8:56, 8:50, 8:57 pace. First off, I have to say these were not so easy. Partway through I had to start walking during the recoveries and even extended a few of them 20 or 30 seconds. I'm not the smartest runner but I have a feeling a half marathon goal pace shouldn't feel very rough for only 800m pick-ups! But I'm proud I got this done especially after my little lay-off post-marathon. This run was definitely a wake-up call for how much work I need to do before the race, though.

Tuesday: 3 miles @ 10:32

Wednesday: 7 miles, including 5 miles @ 9:20 pace; This run was supposed to be a moderate tempo (defined as goal-pace or slightly slower). I was going to let myself get as slow as 9:30's for the tempo portion without getting down on myself since the 9:00 pace 800's were so difficult earlier this week. But I was able to keep up a pace more in-line with the definition of this run, so hurrah! It wasn't easy but not air-sucking hard, either.

Friday: 12 miles @ 10:52; I am satisfied the way this run turned out. Had to take a couple of walk breaks here and there but since it's been almost 3 weeks since I did any distance running was happy with how it turned out. Can't believe just 5 weeks ago 12 miles was "just another run day." The sun was out in full force today in SF. There was a nice breeze but I still felt hot and bakey. Will be spending over a week in Hawaii soon so had better get my heat-face on! Today would probably be considered almost chilly by Hawaii standards.

Okay, I am a little late getting this post up. I am using the Runner's World Ryan Hall training plan for my San Jose training. I am starting at Week 3 of the program and you can see it here. I am doing the long program since I am going to have to jump right back into marathon training after the half marathon. Yes, I signed up for the California International Marathon today. CIM is supposed to be cool and fast so I'm hoping to flip this half marathon speed work over to a marathon PR.

I took a long time to decide on a half training plan. I was originally going to do the half marathon version of the marathon training plan I just finished. This plan had me doing one speed work session a week alternating each week between tempo runs at goal pace and mile repeats slightly faster than goal pace. It worked for the marathon so I figured I'd try it again.

However, I got to thinking that I wanted and needed to do something a little more aggressive. My goal is to break two hours in San Jose which means running in the very low 9:00's. This is not an easy thing for me. I didn't think I'd have the confidence (and possibly conditioning) to pull this pace off for 13.1 miles if I were only doing one run a week in this pace zone. The Ryan Hall plan has me running outside my comfort zone 2 to 3 times a week. I am going into this thinking I am going to do my best to do all of the workouts but won't get too down on myself if some of them prove to be too difficult.

The plan also has two "optional" days that can be either short recovery runs or off days. So you can be running anywhere from 4-6 times a week. I am shooting to run 5 days a week but won't be afraid to back off. I am also glad this plan goes up to a 16 miler as my long run. I am a firm believer that in order to race 13.1 miles you have to be able to run farther than that at a comfortable pace. My two previous half marathon PR's were done without any dedicated training in the middle of marathon training. Unfortunately this 16 miler falls on the week I'll be in Hawaii which may be a difficult thing to accomplish.

As I write this, I am already more than halfway through my second week of training. So I sort of already know how week 2 plays out. But I will say that at the end of this first week I was very nervous about what was coming up. Stay tuned!

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