I can’t believe it, I am a little more than halfway through this training cycle. This training has gone a lot differently than my first one. When I was training for my first half, it was all about getting the distance down. With this training, it all about running for the minutes not the miles and the various running workouts involved to get me to my PR goal.
It took some time for me to get used to running for minutes rather than miles. I am one to go out and run the full 3 miles in 33-34 minutes, not 2.74 miles in 30 minutes. I am a little OCD and would rather have completed the full distance not stop shy of. However, an article I recently read on Active.com discusses whether you should run by minutes or miles. “The reason why time is more important than miles is because your body has no comprehension of what a mile is; it only knows how hard it’s working and how long it’s working (effort over time).”
For this set of training I invested in a plan from Runfit365 and it is seriously the best investment EVER for a plan. I know a lot of sites offer FREE plans and you can certainly search for schedules on Pinterest but those schedules don’t do a justice compare to the plan I am currently using. I feel as though no other plan offers you all of the features such as nutritional guidelines, strength training guidelines, race day checklist and more.
Another thing that is different about this training than previously is I am doing very little “races” while training. To date, I’ve actually only completed in two runs, Run for the Fallen 10k and Race for the Cure 5k compared to the four I did during my last training. While the racing helped me to grow in mileage to a half it also took a toll on me at times. Since I am not racing as much as I was previously, I can focus all my attention on the training and save the built up energy to “race” for race day.
It feels good to be back up in the 8+ mile range. I’ve noticed as I’ve begun to increase my mileage I’ve been able to maintain a more consistent pace, where as previously I would start out for the first 2-3 miles at a 10:30 pace and slowly tinker down and my last few miles would be a walk/run at a 12:30-13:00/mile pace.
As I progress further into my training, my workouts will reach a more difficult level of training with race pace running, Fartlek 30-20-10 and I will be continuing to increase my mileage on my weekly long run.
With my consistency and various levels of intensity in my training, I was recently able to shed two minutes off my previous personal best for a 5k at the Race for a Cure this past weekend. This gives me even more confidence that I can PR at Best Damn Race Cape Coral.
