After thinking about it long and hard, I decided to revise my training plan for the remaining 8 weeks before my half marathon. I like the Train Like A Mother: Own It plan that I have been following, but there are a few components that don't sit well with me. One, there really isn't any track work. I love going to the track and pushing myself on repeats. There are other types of speed work, but I truly believe that the track work helps with my finishing speed. And two, the long runs have too many specifics to them, such as running race-pace miles in the midst of a long run. If I am going to run three times a week, I need to not be over-exerting myself on every single one of those runs. That was what was going on, and it led me to needing a break after just 3 weeks of the plan.
What I did was use parts of the TLAM plan and just modified it to suit my own needs. I added in track workouts, put in tempo runs every other week (versus weekly), and made sure the long runs weren't too long (TLAM had them going up to 15 miles, which I really don't feel is necessary when training for a half) or too fast.
The result: I am feeling much better about the next 8 weeks. Tonight I headed back to the high school track. I haven't ran a track workout in about a month, and boy, could I ever feel it! It was definitely tough to get the speed up to where I wanted it. I ran an easy mile to warm-up, and then I did 6 x 400 with 2:00 walk/stretch between each repeat. My goal was to hit 1:45 for each repeat. I started out really hurting, but the repeats got better and better. My splits were 1:51, 1:48, 1:44, 1:42, 1:43, and 1:42. I am pretty proud of myself! I jogged an easy half-mile to cool-down, and then tried out a GU Brew electrolyte tablet for the first time. You put it in your water, and it's supposed to help like how Gatorade does. It wasn't the tastiest thing, but definitely tasted better than the Nuun hydration tablet I tried last week.
Tomorrow I am planning on running three VERY EASY MILES with a new running friend, Katie. Her pace is quite a bit slower than mine, but I am excited to just enjoy running easy with a friend.
Plans for the rest of the week... it is a messed-up week, as I have a school-related function on Friday night, and a big garage sale that I attend every year on Saturday morning (and Hunter is here on Saturday morning as well, so I can't run early). No real time for a long run either day, so I am doing my long run on Thursday night while Joey has soccer practice. I should be able to fit in all 8 miles.
Tuesday: 3 easy miles with Katie; also cross-train (arms and maybe core)
Wednesday: rest day
Thursday: 8 mile long run (easy first 4 miles, negative split second 4 miles)
Friday: rest
Saturday: cross-train
Sunday: 4 miles (middle 2 @ tempo pace)
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