You’re probably wondering what happened to weeks 3 and 4 of the half marathon training, right? No? Well, I’ll tell you anyway—both weeks were just fine, but week 3 ended while we were on vacation in Colorado, and week 4 ended the day we got back from vacation, and I guess posting my training just sort of slipped my mind.

This morning, I completed day 7 of week 5—a 10 mile long run. With today’s run, I also have new all-time high mileage for one month with 111 miles. All in all, week 5 was pretty good. I threw in an extra day of running (Monday—4 miles), because I hadn’t run in the previous 3 days, including missing a long run. Other than that run, I was back on schedule with training. Week 5 also marked the first scheduled decrease in my easy pace—down from 10:14/mile to 10:08/mile. Here’s the daily rundown:

• Day 1
  • Not on schedule: 4 miles @ 9:51/mile – this was a tough run. It was mid-morning, warm, and humid. This was also my first run back from the cool mountain air of Colorado, and my first run during the day in 4 weeks (early morning runs are my bread and butter now).
  • Full body strength training.
• Day 2
  • Scheduled: 5 miles easy @ 10:08 – this run was much better than the previous day’s. Ended up running the 5 miles in 49:56, for a 10:00/mile pace.
• Day 3
  • Scheduled: 4 miles easy @ 10:08 – another easy run, and again, the pace was actually 10:00/mile.
• Day 4
  • Scheduled: 6 miles, 1 mile warm up, 4 miles tempo @ 8:40/mile, 1 mile warm down. Easy 1 mile warm up, the 4 miles in 34:38, for a 8:42/mile pace. I think this is the first time I’ve actually completed for miles at tempo pace, even if I didn’t hit my pace. I was good until the 4th mile, which came in at 8:49, but at least I didn’t stop.
• Day 5
  • Scheduled: 4 miles easy @ 10:08 – this was another run a little later in the morning, and again, I paid for it. My HR averaged 170 for this run, and it was a very pedestrian 10:07/mile pace. Warm and humid, and I was potentially not recovered fully from my tempo run the day before.
  • Upper body strength training.
• Day 6
  • My birthday, and a rest day.
• Day 7
  • Scheduled: 10 miles easy @ 10:08 – I’d missed my previous two long runs, so I was a bit apprehensive about this run. As it turns out, I had nothing to fear. The total time was 1:40:06, for a 10:01/mile pace.

Well, that’s it for week 5. The tempo run was hard, as were the runs done mid-morning. When I was running in the cooler, early morning weather, I could really feel the high-altitude training kicking in, and would often find myself running easy at 9:45/mile.

Just over two-and-a-half months until the half marathon. On to week 6.