Trail Running Blog

2009 Year End Report & Half Marathon Training Update

Welcome to 2010, runners! I hope everybody had a safe/fun holiday the past couple of weeks. For me, it was filled with lots of driving, eating, visiting family, lounging around and a little bit of running on the side. My half marathon was in mid-November and my next one is in late January, which meant I was supposed to start my 10-week training right after that half.

My 2009 year end report according to DailyMile.

I took a couple of days off to recover from my half and then didn’t really follow any training plan after that. I have been trying to continue to run so that I didn’t get out of shape and maybe even run more miles to build up my base. What I learned from my first half is that I definitely have the speed, but not the endurance. To compensate for that, I have been trying to run more miles than I did from my last training. One way to help is by running 7 days a week, instead of 6. Another thing I did was just have a regular run instead of intervals since that is usually 3-4 miles total.

Since I started my new job, I have had the opportunity leave for work later since the office is just down the street. But instead of sleeping in, I actually wake up earlier to get my run in for the day. I have gone back and forth about running in the mornings and running at night and although I do prefer to run in the evening, it just makes sense for me to run in the mornings. I’ve noticed that my runs have been a lot slower lately, which is probably because I’m not fully awake in the morning and because I don’t have any food in me. I’m hoping that if I continue to run in the mornings, I’ll just get used to it and finally be able to pick up my pace. My goal for my next half (1:35) is slightly less aggressive than my first half (1:30). I’m not completely sure if I would have been able to run that time (1:35) in my last half (when I was actually training hard for it), what makes me think I can hit it now? There will be a pacer there again, so all I can do is try my best to stick with them and see how long I can hang on.

Just looking at my calendar, I noticed that the half is in a little over two weeks away. I know I have not prepared for it as well as I should have, but it was a very stressful time for me. Practicing and preparing for interviews for a new job and then making sure that all of my current work was completed at my old job took up a lot of time. But, that is part of being a responsible adult and putting your education to good use. Although I was still able to run during most of that time, really focusing on the runs was really difficult. I guess we’ll just see what will happen come race day.