10 Days Until The Cowtown Half Marathon
It’s 10 days and counting until I run my first half marathon, the Cowtown Half Marathon. This past weekend I ran 14 miles for the first time ever. It was miserable. The wind chill was in the 20s, and the winds were steady at 11 mph, gusting to 38 mph (I think mostly gusting). As tempted as I was to call it a day after the first half mile, or to do half of it outside and half of it on the treadmill, I stayed the course, and did it all outside. I figured it would be good practice in case we get another shot of cold, windy weather for the race.
Monday was a rest day from running, as well as from work, so I made it a total day off. Instead of training, I spent the day with Julie, just taking it easy, and running a few errands (like picking up Baby D’s crib, and paint for the nursery). Yesterday, it was back to running, with 6 miles easy. While my heart rate and pace were on target for an easy run, my legs weren’t onboard; they felt absolutely awful. This got me thinking: should I really be doing a 6 mile tempo run tomorrow, and: should I really be running another 14 miles this Sunday?
I know people taper for 2 to 3 weeks for a marathon, but what about a half marathon? So as I head down the homestretch of my half marathon training, I thought that I’d show you what training is left, according to my plan, and seek some feedback. Maybe the plan is fine, or perhaps I should scale back the remaining key workouts, reducing the quantity, not the quality. Let me know what you think.
| Week 15 |
| Day | Workout |
| Monday | Rest/XT |
| Tuesday | Easy Run
Dist: 6 mi @ 9:50 |
| Wednesday | Easy Run
Dist: 5 mi @ 9:50 |
| Thursday | Tempo Run
Dist 8 mi, inc Warm; 6 mi @ 8:33; Cool |
| Friday | Easy Run
Dist: 5 mi @ 9:50 |
| Saturday | Easy Run
Dist: 5 mi @ 9:50 |
| Sunday | Long Run
Dist: 14 mi @ 9:50 |
| Total | 43 miles |
| Week 16 |
| Day | Workout |
| Monday | Rest/XT |
| Tuesday | Easy Run
Dist: 4 mi @ 10:08 |
| Wednesday | Tempo Run
Dist: 5 mi, inc Warm; 3 mi @ 8:34; Cool |
| Thursday | Easy Run
Dist: 4 mi @ 10:08 |
| Friday | Rest/XT |
| Saturday | Race Day
Dist: Half-Marathon @ 8:32 Time: 1:52:02 |
| Sunday | Rest |
| Total | 26 miles |
Notes
The training plan has race day as a Sunday, when it’s actually on a Saturday. To account for this, I removed an easy run from Wednesday in week 16, and shifted the remaining workouts one day earlier. Alternatively, I could drop the rest day on Monday of that week, and run easy instead.
The questions I have are:
- Is the 6 miles at tempo too much, just 9 days before the race?
- Do I need to move my last long run from Sunday to Saturday, so that it is a week before the race?
- Is a 14 mile long run too long, just 6 or 7 days before the race?
My half marathon training plan was generated using the SmartCoach training tool at Runner’s World.
By
Bryan
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12:22 PM
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Health and Fitness
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