HALF-MARATHON TRAINING: WEEK OF OCT 22ND
October 31, 2018
Pittsburgh Fitness Project
Half-marathon training. I’ve been running for about 40 years now. Long-term wear and tear led me to an altered gait. Which in turn led to lots of pain when running. Our PFP running coach, Jake Boyer, managed to correct my gait. My personal trainer and gym co-owner, Tom Duer, gave me exercises to strengthen my weak hip flexors. Suddenly, running seemed possible again. It was time to try training for a race! I had run the Philly Marathon twice before and decided to give the half -marathon a go.
I want to share this PFP running training experience with you all. And I have asked Jake to create a half-marathon training program for me based on my goals (1:45 half, 8:39 min miles) and my estimated fitness level. After using some fancy formula which I don’t understand, he created a schedule for me. For that schedule and the first few weeks of my training experience, click here.
WEEK OF OCT 22ND
Monday: Off running – 30-40 minute XT if possible
Tuesday: 6 miles @ E +4-6 strides
Wednesday: Half marathon specific workout #3
● 10 minutes warm-up run
● 4-mile run – mile 1@M, mile 2 and 3 at goal half pace, mile 4 at T (4-minute recovery)
● 2x400m at I pace (faster if you feel great) – 1-minute rest
● 10-minute cool-down
Thursday: off or XT
Friday: 7 miles @ E
Saturday: off
Sunday: 10-mile run @ E with mile 7 at goal half marathon pace, last 2 miles as cool-down
THE KID CRUD
I was looking forward to this week’s training to see what these old legs could do with more half marathon specific runs. My body did not cooperate, however. I had the “kid crud” this past week.
Working in a pediatric practice gives me lots of exposure to viruses, and usually, I can fight them off pretty quickly. My immunity has built itself up over 20+ years in practice. I started with tummy symptoms on Tuesday, which didn’t seem to affect my easy run. But Wednesday morning was different. I had to get my run in early before a long day at work but had a “bathroom explosion” before the run and felt really run down (literally), almost throwing up three miles in. Somehow I gutted out the entire run (pun intended). But felt completely drained afterward and spent the day at work feeling ill.
THE REST OF THE WEEK
Luckily, the rest of the week consisted of easy runs. But I needed to do these very slowly as I still felt weak and had intermittent tummy issues. Lots of fluids and easy to digest foods were helping. I started feeling better by Sunday and was able to get in that quicker mile 7 with less effort. I was finally fighting this thing off! Next week will be some more half marathon specific runs but will start cutting back on the distance. I’ll look forward to running when I feel well!