2016 Little Miami Half Marathon - Weeks 1 & 2

Well, I enjoyed the 10K for the Little Miami, so I thought, why not? Because my half marathon went so badly, I was definitely tender, but probably okay by the Wednesday after. I started doing some light running of my usual 5K loop.

I read the 80/20 book on heart rate/ effort training by Matt Fitzgerald and thought, why not? I might be getting pregnant in the next few months, so why not do a training plan where my heart rate isn't in the 170s all the time? Even if I had MONSTER gains, they would probably disappear while being pregnant and for the time after when I can't run. So this certainly can't hurt.

I did my testing according to the book and using his website and the calculator it links to here.

Here are my results:

Essentially, you take race times and it estimates the speed zones. Then, you warm up then run at the pace at the fastest end of Zone 3. Once your heart rate levels out, that is what you input as your LTHR, which then tells you your heart rate zones. I haven't done a 5K in about a year, but I used an estimate when I did this initially. I did go back in and put in a real 5K time here from an actual race. the determination of the speed for the zones seems heavily influenced by your fastest mile and 5K times. But, I put in a few numbers for my LTHR and it didn't really change my heart rate zones too much, so I think I'm okay.

What I found is I THOUGHT a 13:00 was an easy pace for me, though admittedly I don't do my long runs that slow. And I take breaks and pause my Garmin on my long runs... So I went out and tried running in Zone 1. I wanted to just scream. I can go faster than this! How can I get better if I do this! I know the answer, or book told me the answer, anyway. I am building up my aerobic endurance, which does not happen well at the heart rate I normally run at.

After I settled down, I realized that this pace is enjoyable. I could go forever! And I can listen to a podcast instead of music. Music allowed me to focus on something other than pushing through and wanting to stop. Now I don't really want to stop, and I am able to focus on something else because the running requires less effort.

Another item I noted after reviewing the half marathon plan in the book is that other than the long run, the workouts were time-based. After reviewing how many miles I would cover on even the longest time-based runs, I knew I couldn't take the plan as it read. No way those miles would be sufficient. So I emailed the author. He got back to me the next day and said at a minimum, he would assume a 10 minute mile to determine how far or long I should be running- which was a pretty big difference. I also agree that is a minimum. I'm guessing it could be anywhere from 7-10 minute miles.

As far as speedwork, I think I have to take those as they read. If it says a 1 minute interval, I will probably do a 1 minute interval. I have done so little speedwork that I don't think I can sustain maximum effort for 2x longer than someone else doing this program.

I counted back and realized I would have had to start my training the week after my my half marathon in order to do the full 15 weeks. I figured since I didn't seem to need very much recovery time, I could at the very least assume I had a decent base already and jump in a little late. I did my own running and started the program really in the second half of week 2.

I will say, I do a "group run" at my local running store. I have to use quotes because everyone there, literally everyone, is faster than me. I've accepted this and just used it as a way to get new routes and motivation. I'm not sure I can run 10 miles just on my own. But if someone gives me the route and I know everyone else is doing it that day, it somehow makes it easier.

And even though I'm the slowest person in that group, I still manage to have some amount of vanity because showing up for the first time, knowing I was going to run my Zone 2 pace, and even warm up in Zone 1, was hard to swallow. Zone 1 is 4-5 minutes slower than I would have started out at on any other long run. So if they thought I was slow before, LOOK AT ME NOW! Even better when we do an out and back, so they can see how far I HAVEN'T made it yet when they turn around. Oh well. I will just keep telling myself its worth it when I can turn around and have a big drop in my half marathon PR. Hopefully.

Since I am at a slower time at work right now, I'm also going to try and take the time to try and reign in my eating a little bit. We will see how it goes.