As good as last week was, this week was tough. I suppose that I shouldn’t be surprised, as things always seem to have a way of evening out. On the bright side, the week ended on a high note, with a very, very good long run this morning. Here’s the week’s training:

• Day 1
  • Rest.
• Day 2
  • Scheduled: 5 miles easy @ 10:08/mile – I was tired, the course was hilly, the weather was humid,  and I just didn’t want to get up for this. But I did. 5 miles @ 9:58/mile pace, and my average HR was 157 bpm.
  • Push ups – I haven’t done any push ups in two weeks, and I never did do my final test for the 100 Push Up Challenge. Since I didn’t lift the day before, I decided to do a test, and then several sets of 20. The test came in at 75, and then I did 8 sets of 20.
• Day 3
  • Scheduled: 5 miles easy @ 10:08/mile – Same as yesterday—I’m just not feeling it so far this week, but again, I got out there and did it. 10:01/mile, and my average HR was 158 bpm.
• Day 4
  • Scheduled: Tempo Run; 6 miles total, with 1 mile warm up, 4 miles @ 8:40/mile, and 1 mile cool down. As you know, this run sucked. It didn’t start out bad—in fact, I was feeling pretty good well into the third mile. But halfway through mile 4, I caved. I stopped twice in the last half mile of the tempo portion of the run. It was 75°F with over 90% humidity, but still…I was so close to finishing this thing. The warm up mile was in 10:56, with an average HR of 135 bpm. The 4 tempo miles came in at 9:07/mile pace, if I factor in the 1:54 of stopped time on the Garmin (which I think I need to do), and an average HR of 176 bpm. The cool down mile was in 11:50, with a HR of 170 bpm, and I threw some strides in there for good measure.
• Day 5
  • Scheduled: 4 miles easy @ 10:08/mile – with what happened the day before, this ended up turning into a mini-tempo run. It felt good. Mile 1 came in at 9:45, with an average HR of 145, and then I eased the pace down through the next two miles. Mile 2 came in at 8:51, with an average HR of 164, and mile 3 was 8:11, with an average HR of 182. Mile 4 was a warm down mile, and I completed it in a very comfortable and slow feeling 9:38, with an average HR of 174. Obviously at that pace, my HR didn’t come down much, but believe me when I say that the pace felt comfortable, and surprisingly slow.
• Day 6
  • Upper body strength training. I didn’t feel so great today, and it really showed during my workout. Just had no energy.
• Day 7
  • Scheduled: 11 miles @ 10:08/mile – as I’ve mentioned, this was a great run. Since I am almost at the halfway mark of my half marathon training, I decided to see how I am doing, compared to what I am hoping to run on race day (between 9:00 – 9:30/mile). I figured the best way to do that, without actually racing was to make today’s run a progression run. For the first 5 miles, I tried to keep the pace between 10:00 – 10:08/mile, and then for the next 5 miles, I wanted to slowly bring the pace down with each mile: 9:50, 9:40, 9:30, 9:20, and finally 9:10. The last mile was left as a warm down mile. My mile splits ended up like this (Total time: 1:46:58 – 9:44/mile – avg HR 159):
    • Mile 1: 10:08
    • Mile 2: 10:02
    • Mile 3: 9:58
    • Mile 4: 10:01
    • Mile 5: 10:00
    • Mile 6: 9:50
    • Mile 7: 9:35
    • Mile 8: 9:21
    • Mile 9: 9:14
    • Mile 10: 9:06
    • Mile 11: 9:38

So while the first 3 runs of the week weren’t so great, the last two runs were pretty good, and the last run was especially good, I think.

This next week is a cutback week, and marks the midpoint in my half marathon training, and I really don’t think it could’ve come at a better time. I’m also looking at doing one of two races next Saturday. The first is a 10K over in Dallas—the Tour des Fluers. This would be my first 10K race, and probably the best choice, given that I am training for a half marathon. The other race is a 5K and practically in our own backyard—the Run in the Dark in Keller.

The current plan, I think, is for me to run the 10K in the morning, while Julie cheers, and then flip roles in the evening, with Julie running the 5K while I cheer. I’ve thought about running both—racing the 10K, and trying to keep up with Julie on the 5K, but that probably isn’t the best thing for my training.