Coast Guard Half Marathon Training Week 4

Before I started my training for this race, I told myself that I was going to take all of my runs outside, weather permitting. I also swore that unless it was really bad weather, all long runs would be outside no matter what! This week turned to crap real fast! I'll do a separate post about it but long story short, I woke up Monday morning just before 9am to almost 8 inches of snow (and still falling to about a foot or so) and then the power went out and didn't come back on for good until Tuesday morning a little after 9am. It didn't seem very stable so I held off on my run. Hang on...I'll get to that now!

WEEK 4 SUMMARY TOTAL MILES: 15.57 TOTAL TIME: 3h 52m 37s

Day 1 - 3 mile Recovery Run/Optional Rest Day

As I said above, I woke up to 8+ inches of snow on Monday morning and it just kept coming down. This picture was taken around 2pm when we were up to almost 1 foot or more. Even if I had the proper equipment, I would not have ran outside. I come from a long line of people who can trip over their own feet while standing still (true story: my younger sister was standing in my mom's kitchen one second and then next on her butt...and she hadn't moved). The last thing I want is to push myself way outside of my comfort zone and injure myself to the point that I can't train...REST DAY FOR THE WIN!

Day 3 - 4 mile Speed Run

I restarted NCIS this week so I decided to watch that while I did my speed run. Power came back on on Tuesday when this run was scheduled but instead we took down the Christmas tree and decor and put it away so I counted that as my Cross Training because the power kept flickering and I didn't trust it. Since it had been on for over 24 hours since power was restored, I felt it was safe to turn the treadmill on! This was a 1 mile warm up, 1 mile speed run, 5 minute walk, 1 mile speed run, 5 minute walk, 1 mile cool down. I started my first speed mile at 4.2 and increased the speed every tenth of a mile by 0.2 until I reached 5.0. I held that for two tenths of a mile (I know that is technically a 1/5 of a mile) and then started decreasing 0.2 until I completed my mile. My second speed mile I started at 4.4, increased speed every tenth of a mile by 0.2 until I reached 5.2 and then I decreased it by 0.2 until my mile was complete. I took my walk breaks very serious and didn't note my speed but it was either 2.0 or 2.5.

Day 5 - 3 mile Recovery Run/Optional Rest Day

This run was fueled by watching Eclipse since I was getting close to the end of the book (book club was on Saturday for this book) and it's only on Netflix until January 15th. I like that my runs this training round are mileage based because I can play with my speeds to keep me going and I don't have to run for a certain amount of time. I know it was a recovery run but if you go back a couple weeks, I tried to slow down my recovery pace and hurt myself! I finished my 3 miles and walked until I hit exactly 45 minutes. I also got to hop on a Zoom call with my coach and others training for the same race to talk about stretching pre and post run as well as a quick Q&A at the end. Found out that it's more important to stretch before shorter runs and workout runs than a long run because the first mile or so of a long run could be used to walk and stretch and warm up. Good to know!

Day 6 - 8 mile Long Run

8 miles on Satan's Sidewalk. That's what someone on our Zoom call with our coach called the treadmill on Friday night...I like it! I pushed hard on this run and here's why and what I did. I spent the better part of the morning reading my book because I was almost done and I wanted to be as close as possible if not done before book club at 3pm. I got my running gear on, swiped on my deodorant on the inside of my thighs and under my arms to hoped to avoid chafing. I drank my preworkout and kept reading as I waited for it to kick in. Unfortunately by the time I got started with my run, I had to push. I was on point to finish with enough time to shower or stretch before book club but after having to pause to pee (again) and let the dog out and back in, I managed to finish 5 minutes before we started. I did speed play again with this run. For long runs regardless, I stick with my 15 minute/mile goal. The faster I get to the first mile, then I walk until I hit minute 15, I run to the half mile point and walk to the half way time (I'll explain in a second), run to complete the mile and walk to minute 30 and so on. Here's an example: Run 0.5 miles and walk to 7:30; run to 1 mile and walk to 15:00; run to 1.5 miles and walk to 22:30; run to 2 miles and walk to 30:00. Does that breakdown make sense? Basically the faster I can get to the half mile mark and the whole mile mark, the more I can walk. So I carried that through this run and played with my speed for each run section. I went through a few miles of increasing my speed and then decided to push myself by starting higher and decreasing instead. That was hard but I liked it and it got to a point where I was walking a little over 0.25 miles and had little to run and was able to knock it out in about 3 minutes. I was starting those running intervals at 6.0 and ending at 5.6 for maybe 0.05 miles.

Day 7 - Rest Day: Pre-Hab Day

My husband gave the dog a bath and put his treats on the floor right in front of me and I hadn't noticed until after I snapped the picture and realized that it looked like tiny little poop nuggets. I stretched, probably should have stretched a little more but just didn't want to at the time. It was a relaxed day. I spent most of it downstairs watching NCIS and crocheting some headbands. It rained most of the day and melted a lot of the snow! Yeah!

WHAT'S ON DECK FOR NEXT WEEK: Monday: 3 mile Recovery Run (Optional Rest Day) Tuesday: 5 mile Benchmark Run Wednesday: 45 minute Cross Training (yoga and/or stretching) Thursday: Rest Day Friday: 3 mile Recovery Run (Optional Rest Day, only if Monday was a run day) Saturday: 10 mile Long Run Sunday: Rest Day Pre-Hab

Concerns going into week 5 is mostly weather.

With all the rain that came around on Sunday and the cold temps for Monday and Tuesday has me scared of ice. I have a dentist appointment on Monday morning and depending on the conditions, I may run on Satan's Sidewalk again. With the serious dip in temp on Tuesday, I might switch my benchmark run to Wednesday and cross train on Tuesday. Wednesday means I'll be able to run in a light long sleeve shirt but hopefully outside the rest of the week!