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Sep 26/01 — Carlene: Half-marathon training
Training summary:
Sept 3 – Off day, walk market
Sept 4 – LSD, 19K, 2:05
Sept 5 – Easy 5K run with club
Sept 6 – Bike 29K, 1:11
Sept 7 – Off
Sept 8 – Speed run, 1-2-3-2-1 ladder, 6.5K
Sept 9 – Bike 30.6K, 1:15
Sept 10 – LSD, hilly route, 10.7K, 1:15
Sept 11 – Row 2.5K
Sept 12 – Easy 5K run with club
Sept 13 – Speed run, 1-2-3-3-2-1 ladder, 8K
Sept 14 – Off
Sept 15 – Bike 31K, 1:14
Sept 16 – Bike 31K, 1:11
Sept 17 – LSD run, 20.6K, 2:21
Sept 18 – Off
Sept 19 – Easy 5K run with club
Sept 20 – Row 5K, 24:48
Sept 21 – Bike 20.5K, 51:23
Sept 22 – Speedwork, 4 x 30 second strides,
1-2-3-3-2-1 ladder, 11K
Sept 23 – Off day, hike 1.5 hoursSeptember totals
Distance run = 97.3K / 60.8 miles
Time run = 10.36 hours
Time crosstraining = 8:69 hoursNote: A speedwork ladder is 1 min fast, 1 min recovery, 2 min fast, 2 min recovery, etc. For the strides the goal is to constantly accelerate through the whole 30 second interval.
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It has been three weeks since I last wrote. Although the events of Sept 11th seem to have set the month into a time warp, with the whole world trapped inside one terrible day, time has indeed been passing and the month is slipping away.
I have only one more week of hard training and then my taper for the Canadian International Half Marathon begins. In many ways I can hardly wait. The taper will bring less training and more time to goof off. On the other hand, more time to train – building more speed and endurance – would be fabulous. I have been training hard but I still feel apprehensive.
My coach took my 10K PR of 59 minutes (July 2001) and used it to project goal for the half marathon of 2:11. I have been trying to wrap my mind around that fast time, trying to imagine the clock reading such a small number, and failing. It seems so speedy compared to my half marathon PR of 2:26:29 (May 2000). It also seems that titch faster than my training times as to be impossible. However, my coach believes that I can achieve this time and thinks that an aggressive goal will make my race better. I certainly hope so.
This concept of really racing the half marathon is a scary one to me. Although I have completed 3 prior half marathons I still don't feel as if I really raced any of them. Certainly, I put in the distance training and built my endurance. I might have done a
little speed work too. And, while I ran parts of those races fast, overall they were run/participated in, not raced.I’m sure many of you have had similar experiences. The first race was run "to finish." The second to see how much you have improved over the year. It was my third half where I thought I was ready to race. It seemed simple – see how much better I had gotten since the spring. HA!
Was I humbled that day. It was a hot fall half marathon and 29 people DNF'd. I was 316th out of 324 finishers and glad to have finished without heat stroke. My time was 2:27:50.
After last year's naive vision of running a tremendous fall half marathon, well, I'm hesitant. I know I have worked harder and trained even more dilligently than last year. Each week I hammer through the speedwork and LSD workouts. I really try to push my limits in them. I feel confident that I could race an aggressive 5 or 10K right now. However, really racing the half marathon distance, well, that is another story. It will be interesting to see how it ends on October 14th.
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