Weekly Recap: Week 8 of Half-Marathon Training with Hansons

This was kind of a peak week before Parkersburg, although I've hit 44 miles before and the long run starts my mini-taper. The speedwork ladder starts coming back down, and the pace run goes up another mile.

Overall, the humidity was lower this week as evidenced by my successes in the 1000s and HM pace run. I'm feeling better about my fitness, although I don't know that I can come in under 2 at Parkersburg. In discussions with my Hansons coach, we've decided to go for the PR (start around 9:20) and hopefully speed up after 8 miles or so. Columbus is the true goal.

Monday: 8 miles, 5x1000s on pace w/ negative splits! Saucony Kinvara 6
Target: 8 miles, speed/5x1000s with 600m recovery
So much win on this workout. See details here.

Tuesday: 6 miles, 10:22 pace, Newton Fates
Target: 6 miles, easy
We hit up the Summit Metroparks Running Spree for Tuesday's run. They had 4 miles, so we met earlier to get in 2 miles beforehand. I ran a little faster than I probably should have, although I felt okay. Nervous about Wednesday's run...

Wednesday: 8 miles w/ 5 at 9:00 pace, Saucony Kinvara 5
Target: 8 miles, speed/5 miles at HM pace

So, so happy with this! I was thinking about this way too much beforehand. I even dreamed about it. After last week's fail, I was really not confident that I could run 5 miles at pace (although if I can't do 5, why would I be able to do 13.1?). I warmed up and then settled into my pace. I have my watch set up with a workout so I don't have individual mile paces. It alerts me if I go too slow, and I check periodically to see where I am. I miss not having the individual paces, but that's okay. I am sure that I sped up for the second half of the pace miles, so that's good.

Thursday: 6 miles, 10:41 pace, Saucony Zealot 
Target: 6 miles, easy

Nothing much to say about this easy run. I felt fine, and the second half was a little faster than the first (10:52 versus 10:29 average). I really do think the recovery/easy runs are better than days off. With speedwork on Mondays and Wednesdays, I always have an easy day after a hard run, which is seeming ideal for me. But I'm ready for Friday's rest day.

Friday: rest

Saturday: 10 miles, 10:33 pace, Saucony Zealot
Target: 10 miles, long

Pleasant temperatures and company for the entire run made for a pretty good run. Nothing much to say, just nice & easy, with negative splits. I could have run faster if I'd wanted to. I can't decide how prepared I feel for next week's race. Right now, it looks clear, but maybe pretty warm and probably pretty humid.

Sunday: 6 miles, 10:38 pace, Saucony Zealot
Target: 6 miles, easy
I was not feeling very good at the beginning of this run, but I started to feel better after the turnaround. My mile splits are kind of funny: 11:33, 11:17, 10:46, 10:42, 10:03, 9:27. At the end of some easy runs, I like to run hard for a bit (less than a minute) and then back off. Apparently for the last mile, I was feeling a lot better!

Upcoming Week:

• Monday: 7 miles with 4 at half-marathon pace
• Tuesday: 3 miles, easy
• Wednesday: 5 miles, easy
• Thursday: rest
• Friday: 3 miles, easy
• Saturday: 16 miles with HM
• Sunday: 3 miles, easy