Running-wise, week 9 of my half marathon training was a good week. During the past week, I surpassed 100 miles for the month, for the second consecutive month, and the third month overall in my short running career. I am sitting at 117.2 miles, with 5 more to go before the end of the month.

My schedule is now calling for easy runs at 10:02/mile, down from 10:08/mile for the previous four weeks, and 10:14/mile the few weeks before that. One of the key differences in week 9, compared to prior weeks, is that I actually stayed pretty close to that pace for my easy runs. No more running faster and calling it “easy.” Well, let’s get on with the week in review:

• Monday: XT or Rest – I did full body strength training.
• Tuesday: 5 easy @ 10:02/mile – I did 5 @ 9:52/mile, but only the fifth mile was more than 4 seconds off of the 10:02/mile pace, and that was due to practicing a fast finish.
• Wednesday: 4 easy @ 10:02/mile – I did 4 @ 10:00/mile. This was only 11 hours after running the 5 easy on Tuesday.
• Thursday: 7 miles total, with warm up, 5 @ tempo 8:39/mile, and cool down – This was a very good run. Tempo splits were:
  • 8:40
  • 8:40
  • 8:39
  • 8:40
  • 8:38
• Friday: 4 easy @ 10:02/mile – I did 4  @ 10:02/mile. Legs felt heavy.
  • I also did an upper body strength training workout in the afternoon.
• Saturday: XT or Rest – I worked in the yard for about 2.5 hours as my XT today.
• Sunday: 12 miles @ 10:02 – This marks my first 12 mile run, which is my longest run, distance-wise, to date. I did this run in 1:56:28, for a 9:42/mile pace. My pace actually stayed around 10:01/mile for the first 8 miles, and then in mile 9 and 11 I did 1 mile threshold intervals. In mile 12, I ran easy, which ended up being faster than 10:02, simply due to the fact that I had been running an 8:30/mile pace the previous, so 9:30-9:35 felt really good. I also practiced a fast finish in the last tenth of a mile of the 12th mile. Here are the splits:
  • 10:02
  • 10:02
  • 9:59
  • 10:01
  • 10:01
  • 10:00
  • 10:00
  • 10:00
  • 8:39
  • 9:56
  • 8:30
  • 9:12

All in all, a good week. I am very pleased with my 12 mile long run with the 2 threshold intervals thrown in towards the end. Oh, did I mention that my average heart rate for the 12 mile run was 154 bpm? I think that’s a good sign of improving fitness.