Owens Corning Half Training Recap: Weeks 8

Important to note this week – both Pure Barre classes were tough. Like do-I really-have-to-get-up-off-the-floor-and-walk-to-my-car? tough. But I love it. I also returned for another Power Yoga class because you should do what feels good. Also! I surprised myself with control I was having practicing my headstand against the wall so I did a little at-home practice after class and pushed into my first headstand!!! So much excitement for the little victories. We also traveled to North Carolina this weekend, so I split my easy miles across two days (Wednesday and Saturday) in order to spend less time running on the weekend.

​​
For the past eight+ weeks, I’ve been trying to pin down a goal race pace. Since my marathon goal last fall was to just cross the finish lines, and my other 2016 races were either training runs or hampered by mid-race pain (NYC Half), I don’t really have a good, realistic race time to determine other race paces. In fact, the last race I really gave it my all was at my first half in 2015 – the time I’m trying to beat next month. Still following? I can’t really use a 2015 race as a sign of current fitness so I kind of used the “recovery pace” on a pace chart to pin my down my easy run race and then followed it across for the other stuff. That worked out relatively well, and I’ve adjusted it a a teeny bit faster to make the faster paces feel appropriately harder.

I’ll pin a plan down a little closer to race day, but right now race day pace is 10:50. I know this is definitely on the slower end for a lot of other runners, but it’s a minute faster per mile than my 2015 half, and mentally, I’m still trying to get used not seeing a 12:XX number. That being said, another (optimistic) side of me, is worried that may not be fast enough and I won’t have left enough out there. In that best case scenario, I’ll assess how I feel at mile 8 or 9.

• Monday: Pure Barre #25 (quarter of the way to that 100 club!)
• Tuesday: (am) 2 mile warm-up on the indoor gym track, 8 x (800m, 200m recovery) intervals on the treadmill, and a 1 mile cool-down; (pm) power yoga
• Wednesday: (am) Pure Barre; (pm) “easy” 3.2 miles
• Thursday: (am) 2 mile warm-up, 6 mile cut-down starting at 20s above marathon goal pace, cutting down 10s each mile (11:28, 11:20, 11:11, 10:59, 10:50, 10:38), 1 mile cool-down – really proud of that consistency
• Friday: Travel day/rest day
• Saturday: 4 easy miles around Chapel Hill (no better way to explore)
• Sunday: 9 miles in Chapel Hill – good practice running in warmer weather in case race day is on the toastier end
• Weekly mileage = 33 miles

I’m linking up Courtney @ Eat Pray Run DC + Holly and Tricia for the Weekly Wrap.