Training Week 4

Happy Monday everybody! I hope you are all feeling refreshed and ready to take on the world after an enjoyable weekend! Today, I am going to update you all on week 4 of my half marathon training. I'm not sure everybody loves reading about this as much as they like reading about home decor stuff, but writing about it helps to keep me accountable, so I'm going to keep updating you all on my running progress. I promise to throw in some fun home decor stuff too!  If you want to read about training week 1 click here, week 2 click here and week 3 click here. 

All in all, this week was a really good week. This is the first week where I haven't had to walk at all. The first 3 weeks of training had good days and bad days, and while I was making progress with each run, sometimes I had to walk. Week 4 I managed to run every single step of the 14 miles required of me. Here's the breakdown:

Monday: no running, just a workout. I had another trainer appointment which was good!

Tuesday: 3.5 mile run. My time was 37:54, which I think is my fastest pace for this distance so far, and I felt really good about it! 

Wednesday: 2 mile run. This was a treadmill run. I really don't like running on a treadmill. It feels so pointless to me. Plus, I really like to spend as much time outdoors as possible, since I'm already stuck in an office building 40 hours a week. I ran it in 21:19 which I also think is my personal record for this distance, so I felt good about that. Two PRs (personal records) in a row was a great way to start my training week!

Thursday: 3.5 mile run. This was definitely harder than the 3.5 miles I had to do on Tuesday, but it could have been worse. I managed to run the entire thing in 39:22 which didn't seem too bad for a Thursday run. 

Friday: Rest day. Yay!

Saturday: Cross training. I went on a bike ride and then did 100 push ups, 100 crunches and 100 squats! I'm still sore!! 

Sunday: 5 mile run. I was absolutely DREADING this run. Saturday night was my friend Hannah's bachelorette party and we had SO MUCH FUN. However the prospect of running 5 miles after a night of partying was really unappealing. I'd only gotten 3 hours of sleep the night before and was completely exhausted. I took a nap before my run, but was still operating on less than 5 hours of sleep. As I was lacing up my shoes I told my husband that I was too tired to run 5 steps, let alone 5 miles. I told myself I didn't have a choice and to just go ahead and get it over with. On my way out the door, I'd decided that if I could at least run the entire first mile, I could walk/run the next 4. Somehow I managed to run the entire 5 miles without walking at all. I seriously have no idea where I managed to get the energy to do it, but I did and I am proud. To me this is a bigger accomplishment than last Sunday's 5 mile run. Last Sunday all the cards were in my favor. The weather was gorgeous, I had a full nights sleep, I had the perfect pair of running pants on, and I was feeling great. This Sunday I had zero energy, I hadn't had enough to eat, the weather was sticky and all my favorite work out clothes were dirty so I had to settle for a less comfy outfit and I still managed to pull it off. I have no idea what my time was because my running app wasn't working correctly (it told me mile 2 took me 22 minutes and that mile 3 took me only 5 minutes. It then told me I did all 5 miles in 43 minutes) but if I had to guess I was probably around the one hour mark. Afterwards, we went out to dinner to celebrate my mother-in-laws birthday (Happy Birthday Kellie!!) which was a really fun evening and a great way to end the weekend. 

I'm beginning to think Hal Higdon (read about his training programs here) must really know what he is talking about. So far I've followed his Novice 1 program pretty much to a T and I've already accomplished far more than I ever thought possible. 

How about you guys? I hope you are having success in your attempts to accomplish your goals too!!

-Jesse