Milwaukee Marathon Half Marathon Training: Week 9 Recap (Halfway THERE!)

Week 9 is finished and boom! I am halfway done with the Hanson Advanced Half Marathon Training program.  Last week was a bit crazy - lots of switching workouts around.  My July racing messed up my typical schedule and I have yet to recover from all the switching.   I ended up cutting 3 workouts shorter than prescribed this week, but was only 2.33 miles short from the weekly total plan due to adding little bits of mileage to other workouts.

Monday, August 7
Plan says: 1.5 mile warm up, 6 x 800m at 5k/10k pace with 400 m recovery in between, 1.5 mile cool down

What I do:  I did some switching around because I did not want to do a speed workout the day after doing a long run.  Today = rest day.

Tuesday, August 8
Plan says: 0 miles

What I do:
The weekly speed work was on the plan for today.  I was planning on getting up early but my Sense alarm never went off so I didn't wake up until my husband's alarm (which is an hour later than mine).  ARGH.  I left work early to get this workout in mid-afternoon but wasn't able to complete the entire cool down because I had to pick up my daughter and take her to piano lessons.

This was a workout for the books.  I felt great.  I was shocked when I saw the first 0.5 mi split because it didn't feel that hard.  To be sure, I had to fight to get the last repeat in at that pace, but hot damn!  It's about time I had a solid speed workout where I didn't feel like death. And check out that consistency across all six 800s!!!!

Per the Hanson plan, my goal pace for 800s is 3:05. I did not do these on the track because I try to follow their advice of doing speed work on the roads since that is the surface the race will be on AND I had a limited window of time to get this done so doing it in my neighborhood would allow for the maximum amount of running.

1.5 miles warm up, 12:01 (8:01 avg pace)

0.50 miles, 2:51.6 (5:42 avg pace) / 0.25 miles, 2:06.7 (8:25 avg pace)
0.50 miles, 2:51.9 (5:44) / 0.25 miles, 2:01.5 (8:04)
0.50 miles, 2:52.8 (5:43) / 0.25 miles, 2:09.1 (8:35)
0.50 miles, 2:51.0 (5:41) / 0.25 miles, 2:10.7 (8:37)
0.50 miles, 2:51.3 (5:42) / 0.25 miles, 2:15.9 (9:01)
0.50 miles, 2:52.9 (5:44)

0.78 miles cool down, 6:40.8 (8:34 avg pace)

I will admit that 800s are among my favorite track workouts.  I just love love love them.  It is fun to see some improvement in this training cycle, and since my marathon training earlier this year.  Here are my 800s on July 10:

1 - 3:03 (6:02 avg pace)
2 - 2:59 (5:57)
3 - 3:01 (6:03)
4 - 2:53 (5:43)
5 - 2:55 (5:48)
6 - 2:54 (5:51)

My 800s on March 16:

1- 3:04
2- 3:04
3- 3:06
4- 3:07
5- 3:02
6- 3:04

Wednesday, August 9
Plan says: 1.5 mile warm up, 5 miles at half-marathon pace (6:44), 1.5 mile cool down

What I do:  Flip flopping Monday and Tuesday means that Wednesday and Thursday also have to be flip flopped in order to not have two hard days in a row.  I got up early and just went on autopilot to get the easy 6 miles done.  I added a little more to make up for my shortened cool down yesterday.

6.75 miles, 57:12 (8:29 avg pace)

Thursday, August 10
Plan says: 6 miles easy

What I do:  4:45 AM ALARM BABY.  Shut off.  Groan.  Roll over.  Groan some more.  Get my butt out of bed and get dressed.

I tried a Honey Stinger Stroopwafel before this run because I felt a little hungry when I woke up and it was hanging out in the cupboard, a free sample from something.  (Typically I do not eat anything before an early morning run.)  It was very sweet but went down easy and didn't seem to bother my stomach.

My first mile of warm up beeped in at 9:07.  I think next week I am going to try doing a 2 mile warm up and a 1 mile cool down versus 1.5 miles for each.  My body just does not seem ready to go after 1.5 miles in the early morning.

I switched into tempo mode and felt like I was cruising, but first mile clocked in at 7:05.  I could be checking my pace during my runs but when I do this, it seems to make me more nervous so I just am trying to only check pace during the mile beeps.  My legs were tired, I had more than 1 stop to catch my breath and then finally, 5 miles were done.  I am sure doing the 800s at faster than prescribed pace was partially to blame for how my legs felt.  I also am not very confident during my tempo runs. They totally freak me out and the pace is not comfortable which is something I am struggling with. During marathon training my tempo runs were at a 7:15 which I always could finish faster than that. I am finding that 6:44 tempos are a whole other ball of wax.

1.51 mi warm up, 13:32 (8:59 avg pace)
5.0 mi tempo, 34:16 (6:51 avg pace)
1.5 mi cool down, 12:22 (8:15 avg pace)

Friday, August 11
Plan says: 5 miles easy

What I do:  Throw my alarm clock on the floor.  Ok, not intentionally, but in an attempt to shut if off, I knocked it over. I got up 45 minutes later than I should have which meant an interception from my son, which delayed me getting out even further.  I eventually got out the door and did 4 miles, which was pushing my luck with morning timing, but my daughter has been a fan of helping to make lunches in the morning so that helped me.  One of the joys of kids growing up I guess - more and more they can do things for themselves! (...yet at the same time sobbing that they are growing up.  Motherhood in a nutshell.)

4 miles, 34:09 (8:32 avg pace)

Saturday, August 12
Plan says: 10 miles at long run pace (7:30-9:00)

What I do:  We had an insanely busy weekend.   Friday night I had dinner with girlfriends. I was home at a very reasonable hour, only about an hour past my bedtime, but my son had breathing issues all night long so we did not get a lot of sleep.  Saturday morning was thrown off by a trip to urgent care for breathing treatment and Saturday afternoon we had an outing with my husband's office.  Thus, come 8:00pm, I was outside running.  I didn't have the energy to tackle 10 or 7 miles, so I logged 5.25.

5.25 miles, 43:04 (8:12 avg pace)

Sunday, August 13
Plan says: 7 miles easy

What I do:  I slept in on Sunday because I needed sleep.  We had a Brewers game (baseball) with my family all day which was a lot of fun.  My kids were zonked and went to bed early so I again had night miles, but early bedtime meant that most of my miles were done in daylight and I was able to squeeze the long run in!

10.1 miles, 1:19:04 (7:50 avg pace)

Plan Miles: 43
Total Weekly Miles: 40.67