Weekly Recap: Week 2 of Half-Marathon Training with Hansons

Week 2 is done, and I completed all of the workouts basically as assigned. I even went to the gym once!

• 33 miles
• 6 runs
• 1 speed workout
• 1 race (kind of a fail)
• 1 strength session

Monday: 4 miles, 10:18 pace, Saucony Zealots
Target: 4 miles, easy (10:10 to 11:52) 
On the hunt for soft surfaces other than the Towpath, I found a new location to run  with a two-mile dirt trail and not much elevation. It runs through the woods for a mile and through a meadow/marsh for a mile, so it's not too bad. It's also convenient because it's on the way home. The pace would have been a little slower, but it started POURING and my last mile was under 9:30. I felt pretty good actually, and my calf wasn't a problem. Because of the heat, I only wore a compression sock on my right foot and a regular toe sock on my left.

Tuesday: 9 miles, 10:04 pace, repeats averaged 8:39, Saucony Kinvara 6
Target: 12x400s (8:21 to 8:42 pace) with 400 recovery and 1.5-mile warmup/cooldown
In hindsight, this workout went okay. My coach did make me feel better when she said it's common for people not to hit the paces at all in the first workouts, so only missing on two is definitely a success. More details here.

Wednesday: 4 miles, 10:29 pace, Saucony Triumph
Target: 3 miles, easy (10:10 to 11:52) 
I swapped Wednesday and Thursday so I would have fewer miles on Thursday. I took it easy, didn't let anyone else's pace determine mine, so that's a win. Slight negative-split with the last mile at 10:15 (which is the bottom end of my easy run paces).

Thursday: 3 miles, 11:16 pace, treadmill, Saucony Zealot + Strength
Target: 4 miles, easy (10:10 to 11:52) 
I hit the gym for this workout. I did an easy progression run on the treadmill after doing some strength-training. I felt okay - nothing really to talk about.

Friday: rest 

Saturday: 7.27 miles, 9:30 pace, Saucony Kinvara 6, RAIN & 65 degrees
Target: Thirsty Dog 8k with 1-mile warmup/cooldown 
This was kind of a disaster. It was raining, and I was cranky. So I didn't even try during the race (seriously, my overall pace for the race was about the same as the total workout. That's embarrassing. At least I completed the warmup and cooldown? Official results for the Thirsty Dog 8k: 47:43, 9:36 pace.

Sunday: 6 miles, 10:30 pace, Saucony Zealots, light rain & 60 degrees
Target: 6 miles, easy (10:10 to 11:52)
We spent the night in Pittsburgh on Saturday, so Sunday's run was along the riverfront trail. Even after a night of drinking, we were up and on the trail when it was still appropriate to say, "Good morning." Nothing much to talk about. I felt okay, but after two days of pavement, my right calf was a little cranky.