Half Marathon Training Plan
June 10, 2009
So I realized sometime during my marathon training that training plans overwhelm me and really take the fun out of running for me. During my training I got burnt out and wanted to not run as much as I was in the beginning. The training plan I was following was made up for my current running abilities at the time and was perfect if I would had stuck to the plan pretty closely. I dealt with a lot of personal things during the training which also wore me out so I had no energy to run some days. Running hard six days a week is just not for me either. So with this upcoming half marathon, here are the things that needed to be addressed.
1. Bathroom issues – I need to find a good mix of what to eat while running that doesn’t lead to bathroom trips. Though I never had had a problem with the half distance and the bathroom issues, if I choose to run a marathon again, I would rather try to figure that out earlier on so I don’t have the problem anymore.
2. Speed – After the marathon I realized that I had perhaps stepped back on running fast for a little bit too long and I had lost a lot of my speed that I build up by building my endurance. I am going to work on getting faster and keeping with that pace for this cycle of training
3. Hills – I know the SF 1/2 is going to have some major butt kicking hills and if I don’t train on them I’m going to have an epic blowup at the 1/2.
4. Sticking to the schedule – So I got super burnt out, and had a really hard time getting myself out there to run because I think I got overwhelmed with the amount of running, the time it took and everything else in my life. This cycle I am really going to try to stick with the schedule.
5. Diet – So we all know that I eat a ton of crappy food. As in a TON. I eat a ton of fast food, and at work I’m called Lamar because I eat so much candy. This little issue will be addressed after the training plan.
So dun dun dunnnnn, I announce my OWN training plan.
I made this up according to what I think I can feasibly get done and also with the idea that one day, sooner than later I may possibly run another full marathon. This is all still speculation and I hope to discuss my feelings and how the race went mentally sometime next week. I’m still sorting through that whole mumbo jumbo in my head.
Sundays will be my rest day
Each week I will be doing on cross-training or weight lifting type workout. This will most likely fall on Mondays.
Tuesdays I plan to do some simple mileage. Usually at a nice, consistent pace. Anywhere from 6-8 miles. Somewhat of a recovery from weights if I’m a little sore. I will do some striders at the end to shake out my muscles and keep the speed somewhat included.
Wednesdays I will run a faster lactate threshold type workout. This can range from 6-12 miles, with 3 to 8 miles at a faster pace. Mostly the half marathon it will be on the 6-10 mile side.
Thursdays I will do a track workout. This means legitimately going to the track and running as fast as I can. Usually will be doing 400s or 800s all out. Possibly will include sprints (because I miss them dearly) OR I will run hills, which would be a very hard hill workout, where I run up a hill all out about 10-20 times and then slow jog around the back. There is a nice grassy hill that I know I can run up and it will kick my butt but will also get my quads into better shape and will get me more used to running hills more frequently. This is what we did in high school and it really helped me.
Fridays This is my 2nd rest day of the week.
Saturdays This is where my training will be a little different, I am going to include 2 20 mile long runs in the beginning of July before my taper to try to increase my endurance. All my long runs in the training cycle will be longer than the half marathon distance of 13.1 miles as well. I have 6 long runs to get in before the half so I am going to probably break it down like this:
June 13 (but sadly this weekend I think my run will come on Sunday because I have some prior all day commitments on Saturday, but it shouldn’t mess up my schedule too bad since it’s not too incredibly long and I shouldn’t be sore on Monday) – 14 miler
June 20 – 18 miler
June 27 – 20 miler
July 4 – 20 miler
July 11 – 18 miler
July 18 – 14 miler
July 26 (Sunday) – San Fransisco Half!
It seems crazy but I really think this will allow me to build my endurance up and I know I can run that far because of the marathon. I know it will also keep me in better shape in case I do decide to run a fall full marathon. I also hope it makes me faster. Also every night, I will do at least 25 push ups and 100 sit ups, if not more as I go along. I started doing that before San Diego and before I gave up on them, I was really starting to see a difference. I know the core is very important to runners and I want to work on mine. I feel that starting off with 100 and doing them every day will be a good number. If I feel good then I will do more, but I must always do 100.
So now onto the diet of myself. I know I eat a ton of fast food. To cut this down I’m limiting it to eating fast food once during the work week, and once during the weekend. This can be for dinner, breakfast or lunch, but it’s only ONCE during the day I choose, not a full day. For me, fast food is Mc Donalds, Jack in the Box, Taco Bell, Del Taco, etc. NOT Quizno’s, Subway, or Togos. If I get a sandwich somewhere that doesn’t count as fast food, because that’s basically what I would have brought from home.
This new diet also includes not drinking limitless amounts of Soda. I can have two of those a week too. Luckily, I don’t drink coffee so I don’t have to wean myself off that either, but I know caffeine and sugars are super bad for you, and I need to increase my water intake. I know I can’t give up all my soda but I think two a week is a good number, because sometimes I just need a soda, sprite specifically.
Then we have the candy addiction. This is rough because I love candy. I am going to try to cut as much out of my diet as possible, but if need be and I can’t resist the addiction cravings, I can have one bag a week, of whatever candy I choose. This isn’t the family size bag or a fun size, this is the regular bag that would be mixed in with the candy at any gas station type of establishment.
I am going to try to eat healthier by eating more fruits and vegetables as well. I seriously lack those in my current diet. Mainly my diet is made up of cheese and bread/pasta, with the occasional interspersing of chicken. So I think including more fruits and veggies will bode well for me. Also last weekend I tried tofu and really liked it so I think I’m going to try to start working on making some of that and including it in my diet. I don’t necessarily want to drop a lot of weight on my ‘diet’ but at the same time that would be an added bonus, but mostly, I want to do it to feel healthy and feel good. I love candy but it doesn’t always make me feel the best after I’ve downed some huge bag.
So that’s my plan in a nutshell basically. Well see how it goes and how all my workouts start to fall into place. It starts this Saturday (or Sunday, pending) with my 14 miler. I am trying to get my toe to heal as quickly as possible and it’s starting to feel a bit better, which I think will allow me to run well this weekend for the 14 miler I have planned. Now to get rid of this summer cold that has me a little congested and I’ll be good to go.
I am excited about this plan because I feel like it fits me a little bit more than such intense running. I like to switch things up and I feel like my long runs will help me build endurance and make the half fly by! Well see how it goes. I also feel that this gives me the option to run another fall full marathon if I choose to.
So tomorrow I’ll have some sweet deals! I will be posting my progress with the plan as well throughout my training up until the 1/2 on July 26.
xoxo
20 miler down.
May 11, 2009
I had another 20 miler this weekend. I was pumped about it all week, ready to nail it and was even hoping to do better than my last 2o miler. For some reason my legs had been feeling heavy all week long but I tried to push that out of my mind. I’m a pretty positive person and I felt like I would just kill this run for some reason.
Things change once you start running.
I got out the door and started with my gus, my filled bottle and my new pouch. I took my phone because I wanted to take pictures along my route like so many people do to share with everyone of where I was running. Mile one was rough but usually mile one is rough when I’m running in the morning because I’m still a little tired. It just never got better though. I think I hit the proverbial wall once I stepped out the door for my run. Not a good sign
I ran a few different loops, didn’t calculate my run correctly and ended .5 of a mile away from my house. Usually this doesn’t make a difference to me during a run, but after 20 miles of playing mind games with yourself, when you are done you want to be home. There were some failed things about this run that were totally my fault. I didn’t take my ipod. GIANT FAIL. I had nothing to entertain me, I was incredibly bored and didn’t run far enough ‘out’ in my first loop so I was doing weird loops to make up for distance and that’s how I got confused and miscalculated.
Each mile I tried to think of different people. I thought of Aron, Maritza, Tara, Alisa, Julianne, Maggie, and all the girls that will be in SD, I thought of some random twitterers but I just never got in the zone. I tried to distract myself by taking pictures, and looking around me, but there weren’t too many people out when I started and when I hit the wall BIG time at mile 10, there were people out probably just wondering what in the world I was doing. I was gimping, running fast then slow, I just couldn’t pull out of the funk, but you know what I realized during this wonderful long run? That sometimes it’s not about being the fastest. It’s not about the best time, having the best day, feeling great and totally nailing the workout, it’s about running. It’s about getting out there and doing it. I didn’t want to run at all on Saturday, but I still did it. Looking back yea, it was a crappy way to spend three hours, but at the same time, I’m pretty proud of doing yet another 20 miler. It’s just that you have to believe in yourself and do it. Then you can do it, then you can basically do anything.
Then my spirits were cheered a little when an older hot dadish type ran with me for about .5 of a mile. We chatted for a while, I told him I was training for San Diego Rock and Roll. He told me
“Well girl, you look good so don’t even worry!” I smiled but then his measly nine miler was done. I trudged forward.
Even though it was one of my worst runs ever, It taught me a lot of lessons. I knew I couldn’t stop. I knew I had to keep going. I knew that this would be like what the marathon felt like. It’s not the best idea to do every one of your runs alone, but that is what I do.
I laughed at the pictures I had taken, felt bad for the two dead seagulls I saw, smiled at bikers and even hummed to myself. I was pretty cuckoo on this run, but I knew I had to finish. One point I even resorted to tweeting, which oddly enough, I think I was running the fastest all day when I was tweeting.
So you want to see the photo tour of my 20 miler? Wait no more…. It was quite interesting to say the least, but hey, I’m glad I can run, I’m glad I completed it, and I’m glad it’s done with. Now I can taper, even though I think I’ve been tapering for over a month…
I tried to take a picture of myself during my run, this was the best I could do.
Then I run past the Queen Mary on a pretty regular basis. It was still a little bit cloudy but there she is!
There’s the beach path that I started on and mostly what I run every day when I am training. It’s flat and gorgeous. There’s even the Belmont pool in the background! For those of you who are looking at possibly doing The Long Beach 1/2 Marathon or Full Marathon, that is the 1/2 Marathon course!
I recently found this, it’s a boardwalk path and I love running on it. The wood is actually very nice to run on and the houses are HUGE and fun to look into. Usually I catch myself staring in all the windows and get embarrassed when there are people inside and catch me looking at them! 
I realized after my run, that I really liked my new pouch, I wore it on the front to stop the bouncing of the water bottle and disperse the weight more evenly. Then I realized where I was wearing it all day made it look like I was wearing a loincloth or worse trying to hide something. Wha-wha.
On top of the bluff above the beach path. There are always characters up here and I sometimes run up here to switch things up a little bit.
Hi, I’m ChicRunner and I want to DIE! This was on my walk home. So tired. So sore. So far away from my house. Oh well, whatever happened happened.
Then instead of wasting money on ice for an ice bath, I just decided to walk back out to the beach and went in the ocean for my ice bath. It was cold and dirty, but I waited it out and then went home and took a shower. Hooray for my last 20 miler before the full marathon.
Though yesterday isn’t my favorite day in the world, I had a good day with my roommate’s mom and family. We rented a boat and cruised around the bay, drinking mimosas and eating cheese and crackers and strawberry shortcake. YUM.
On another completely unrelated note, Kymberli from Webbed Foot Photography and I are doing a photo shoot this weekend and I’m ecstatic. Almost as ecstatic as when I found a new HUGE Forever 21 right down the street that I didn’t even know about this weekend. I can’t wait and I will be sharing some wonderful pictures with you guys as well.
Can’t wait to catch up on all the Race Reports and every one’s weekends. I am thinking that I’m going to be posting some reviews this week and next week everyday for a week I will talk about running and the many things associated with it, like gus, ice baths, training, and starting out. I am no genius but I will offer my thoughts and ideas on the topics and address some of the questions I’ve gotten recently.
Hope everyone has a wonderful Monday!
xoxo
20 miles were a lot different than I expected.
April 28, 2009
So finally I ran a 20 miler. I didn’t know what to expect, and to finish was not what I expected at all. I still can’t believe I actually did it. Part of me thinks that little Claude was lying to me, like my nike plus used to, the little cheater, but alas 20 miles down in the books. So I don’t want to toot my own horn and I know some of you run this all the time, but it was a big first for me, and there were a lot of things that happened on the way that I knew I would HAVE to share with you guys.
The night before I just kept telling myself that I could do it. I wasn’t scared of it, and I knew if I had to walk, crawl or slog my way through it, I could at least try. I got up at 6 am and wanted to take off at 6:30. I had a muffin, three shot blok and got my fuel belt ready. I packed in three bloks to have at the 4 miler make. It started off great. I was really amp’ing myself up over it. I kept telling myself that I COULD do it, and I WOULD do it. Repeating something in your head is really helpful. I was going to run an 8 mile loop, a 4 mile loop the opposite way, and then the 8 mile loop that I ran earlier. Each end of the loop was going to pass by my house because I hadn’t had time to get the extra pouch for my fuel belt yet so I was just going to grab my gus from home.
The farthest I’ve ever ran before this weekend was only about 17.6 miles, and there were a lot of breaks in between since I ran the 10k and ran to the starting line and home after. I started off wearing my arm warmers, shorts and a t-shirt. I felt very good for the first 7 miles. I didn’t look down at Claude to see my pace, I just let myself go, and enjoyed the fresh beginning of a new day. I was instantly in the ‘zone’ and every mile ticked down I just though to myself, “Okay, that’s only 18 left, now 17 left, now 16 left.” I ate shot bloks at mile 4, this was of course when a nice old guy was running by me and he said hello. I was half chewing, half choking, half trying to breath and I mumbled/drooled out a hello back. He probably thought I was some crazy freak.
It was during this time when I started to imagine myself running a full marathon. I started to think of what I was going to wear on race day, what it would be like to cross the finish line. I started to think about all the girls I’m going to be running with from San Fransisco and Oregon, and how excited I am to see everyone and what a great weekend it will be. Then I started to think, well this is my FIRST marathon, I feel like I should dedicate this to someone. I thought about making a shirt that said, “In memory/honor or something along those lines, of my Mom.” I thought about putting a picture on the shirt, what I would want it to say. Then I started thinking about this more and more, and I thought about well if I ever make it to Boston, I would much rather dedicate that race to her, or the race I BQ at to her, and I don’t know if I want a shirt with her picture on it, or people to feel bad for me, etc. etc. Then my thought process changed to something else and I forgot about that.
Once I got to 8 miles I had to RACE to the bathroom back at my house. I realized this could be an issue, we are going to have to work on that. Then I got three more shot blok and took off again. While at home I also took off my arm warmers. I felt good on the 4 mile loop still and kept counting down the miles. For the first 8+4 loops I didn’t listen to music and just enjoyed my run, not caring about my pace. There was one spot where it smelled like a heap of dead fish, and another where it smelled so strongly of bacon. I realized I cannot smell things on my run or they make me gag. I thought I was going to throw up during these smelly points. There was a huge 177 mile relay race going on and I would smile at the racers walking or running by and sometimes encouraged them with something random like, “Way to go!” I’m so original, I know. They were running from Santa Barbara to Dana Point in relay teams. That was kind of exciting.
After four miles, I stopped at home and went to the bathroom yet again. I made sure both my ‘home’ stops were only three minutes. I took yet another gu and took off to finish this run. At this point it was pretty hot out so I decided to brave the elements and run without a shirt. That is the only way I’m getting back in shape. If I run without a shirt then I feel like I have to do extra sit ups. I grabbed my ipod for this last loop of the run as well because I knew this was going to be where I needed distractions. I took off and was into my run about 13 miles. Then in the distance I saw a huge crowd of walkers on the beach path. I knew this wasn’t just a random group of walkers, but it had to be yet another organized event. I was interested to see what it was again. I got closer and closer, and realized it was the Avon Breast Cancer Walk. After a little research this morning I realized it wasn’t the actual walk, but a Training Mock Walk, but still everyone was wearing pink and excited to be out and walking and raising awareness to breast cancer on this Saturday. It looked like it could be the real walk there were so many people.
Unexpectedly, I all of a sudden felt my heart start to burn with a familiar hurt, and my breathing was hard. This is when I lost it. I started crying. It was mile 14, I had 6 more to go and I was crying while running next to these walkers. My nose was sniffling and I was just looking down and reminding myself to keep going. To keep putting one foot in front of the other one. They were walking against the route I was running and all saw me crying while running along. Though I had my music on I could hear my breathing and it was weird like shallow wheezing.
I had done the Avon 3-day walk when my mom was still alive my junior year in High School. I had worn the pink gear, I had walked the 60 miles, and my mom (and entire family) were there supporting me through the entire thing. It was a great experience and seeing these women walking was just inspiring and it reminded me so much of my mom it turned me into a wheezing/running/crying mess.
I kept telling myself to suck it up and stop crying, but I couldn’t. It was a weird weird mile. I hate crying in front of other people and I just took some deep breaths and kept running. I remember feeling a tear go down my cheek and I thought to myself, really, REALLY you are seriously CRYING?! Then, just as quickly as I started choking up, I stopped crying and was okay to finish the run. The last 6 miler were good. It was once I got to mile 17, I was hurting, my butt was killing me. I have never even felt pain in my butt when I run at all. I got back to my house and thought about my run. I had completed it, I had broke down in the middle and still kept going. Sometimes that’s all you need to keep going. I took an ice bath and then showered and laid in my bed for some time watching the Penn Relays and the NFL draft.
I think it reminded me so much of my mom and how she would be so proud of me for running a full marathon. It reminded me so much of how many people are affected by breast cancer, and how many people we need to find a cure for. I’m sure people were like WHAT IN THE WORLD IS WRONG WITH THIS GIRL. When you are tired, and running, and crying, it’s hard to breathe.
Doing this run brought so many emotions out, looking back on it now, I would have NEVER expected that something like that would remind me of my mom, none the less make me cry and break down in the middle of a long run. It also made me realize that I can run a full marathon. I was beginning to get nervous and I know the brutalness of a full marathon doesn’t even come until the 20th mile, but you know what, bring it on. If you go in with the attitude that it’s going to be too hard, that you won’t like it, that it’s going to stink, that you’re hurt, that you can’t do it, guess what…
It is going to be too hard, you won’t like it, it is going to stink, you will be hurt and you won’t be able to do it.
I’ve played this mental game with myself, and almost got caught up in it again last night. Sunday after the 20 miler was my scheduled rest day and last night when I got home it was cold. I was exhausted and didn’t want to run, but decided to go out to ‘loosen up’ I planned to run a four miler but when I started I was incredibly sore. I didn’t even realize how sore I was. I told myself that I HAD to do four miles, and that if they were slow or fast they were going to get done, so I ran 2 miles out away from my house so I couldn’t go back after two miles. After the first mile, I had gotten rid of my sore stiffness and was chugging along and knew that I would be fine for four miles. So fine that my last mile was 7:45. I had to allow myself a chance for success.
The two weeks leading up to my 20 miler, I probably put in about 8 miles in each of those weeks. Believing in yourself works wonders. Running is hard, it’s just a mental game of pushing yourself to your personal limit. It’s not easy, but no one ever said anything that was worth it was easy. Allow yourself to succeed.
xoxo
