Week 1 of the plan to run a faster half marathon.

Kiley was super awesome and offered to write me a running plan for my next half marathon.  I have never followed a set plan before so I admit to being both excited and apprehensive.  So far I am loving it! So nice not to have to think about what I am going to do, it is all planned out already.  Although I do admit to adding in a few races that were not on the plan.

Sunday   plan said  7 miles easy with 4-8 strides at the beginning or the end of the run

what I did  7.3 miles easy (although hilly miles) with 5 strides at the end. I had planned to do more like 6-8 strides, but... guts.  I had to finish the run at an easier pace than a stride in order to make it back safely.  The plan calls for the strides to be 80-150m  long.

I am not good at meters.  My Garmin does not tell me things in meters,  I tried to do the math in my head but math doesn't always go well when I am running, so I opted to run my strides the length of the distance between the telephone poles.

Turned out this was pretty close as between the poles is about .05 miles and that is equal to 80.4 meters.  So I ran a few longer and a few at 80.

Monday   plan said 1 mile warm up with 800m 1:2 x4 with a 1 mile cool down.  Interval pace at 6:38 or at about 3:20 for each interval

what I did 1 mile warm up then 800 intervals 3:17, 3:18, 3:15, and 3:14 with an easy mile between each and a mile cooldown. total of 8 miles in 1:07:36  

How I felt about it...  those were tough.  I had been doing my 800 intervals a bit slower. Knowing there was only four really helped.  I had to really talk myself through them. 

Wednesday plan said 10-11 mile long run and then 4-8 strides 

what I did 11 miles with 4 strides for a time of 1:36 and a 8:45 pace.   Had a funny niggle in my right quad that seemed to work out by the end of the run.  

Saturday plan said  4 miles of hills with 3-4 strides at the end

what I did 4 miles, 2 of the miles were pretty flat and the middle 2 were all uphill.  I had no energy and no pep, the wind kicked my butt and the hills sucked the life out of me. 

So far I really like having a plan,  This plan pushes me and I wasn't too sure about strides at first, but I am starting to enjoy them at the end of a run.  

Also did yoga in the am on Sunday, Monday, Wednesday and Friday.  I think I got in 2 strength workouts this week, which is one less then I would like, but as Carla would say WYCWYC (what you can when you can)