Week 8 MyASICS Half Marathon Training

MyASICS Plan:

Monday: 5.5 miles (8:29 – 8:06 pace)
Thursday: 5.5 miles (8:06 – 8:27 pace)
Saturday: 11 miles (8:45 – 9:38 pace)

What I did

Monday: 5.5 miles (7:50 pace)
This was a treadmill run. Doing a lot of this lately because of the weather. There’s still a fair amount of ice around and I’m t oo worried about slipping and falling. I have a hard enough time walking to and from my car as is. The run felt tough, but doable.

Thursday: 3 miles (7:48 pace)
Another treadmill run. I stopped after 3 miles because I was so tired. I spent a good portion of Wednesday at our house doing renovation. I was wiped out.

Saturday: 2 miles (8:19 pace) & 9 miles (7:58 pace)
I did a double, but this was more by happenstance than a deliberate plan. I know many runners love the long slow run, but I don’t. Most of the time, I’d rather do speed work. I rather suffer hard for a short period of time and get it over with. Plus I’m tired of the tedium that’s treadmill running. I’ve listed to all of Serial and I have my music, but I’m tired of running on a treadmill. I set out in the morning to do all 11 miles, but I quit after 2 miles because the gym was too hot to run. There’s a bit of a tussle between the weightlifters & slower runners and the faster runners over the temperature of the gym. The former group want it much warmer. The latter group would like the gym to have the same temperature as a meat locker. I went back later in the evening to try again. The gym was a bit cooler. I mentally divided the 9 miles into thirds. The first and last third were the hardest to do. I was so ready to be done by the time I reached Mile 6. I was tired and bored, but I remembered reading somewhere that boredom was great mental training for endurance running. I endured the boredom for the last three long miles. Finally it was over and I completed the 11 miles for the day.

Total Mileage: 19.5 miles

Thoughts

I ran on the days I was supposed. Ran most of the miles. All in all, a pretty decent week.