Again, it's been awhile since my last update, but that doesn't mean that I've stopped training. In fact, today is Day 7 of Week 4 for me, which means that it is time for my long run. This week, my long run is 4 miles, as it was in Week 3. But since I haven't posted at all about Week3, you wouldn't have known that. So let me update you on Week 3...
In case you missed it in the last post, you can view my workout log from MapMyRun.com, with Week 3 starting on Monday, December 17th, and ending on Sunday, December 23rd. The highlights from the week include the Day 2 run (12/18). This was the first time I did a sub-25 minute 2.5 mile run outdoors, clocking it in 24:40. Another highlight was my Day 4 run of 2 miles which was my first sub-20 minute 2 mile run (not counting the first 2 miles of my previous 2.5 mile run), with a time of 19:29. During Week 3, we traveled to Houston to be with Julie's family for Christmas, so I rearranged my schedule slightly in order to better accommodate the travel. Instead of resting on Day 5 (Friday), I ran with Julie on her Couch-to-5K 25 minute run, and then we ran/walked another 25 minutes to get me to 50 minutes of "cross-training." With this change, Day 6 became my rest day, and our travel day. On Day 7 (12/23), I completed my scheduled 4 mile run. This is the longest distance I have ever run non-stop. I've probably done longer distances (by a little), but they were always of the run/walk variety. My time for the run was 44:45. Julie went with me on this run as part of her 25 minute run, and she probably kept the pace a little higher than what I should've been doing, or perhaps I just wasn't having a good day through the first half. By the time I hit the 3 mile mark, I was feeling good, and mile 4 ended up being the fastest of the day. Here are the mile splits:
One thing to note is that this was done in Friendswood, Tx, on a pretty flat route.
So there you have it, Week 3 of Hal Higdon's 10K Training Program: Novice. I'll post again after my 4-mile run today, with the details of week 4, or you can just check out my workout log.