Training Update

It was a beautiful sunrise run and bad math that gave me the confidence to make the somewhat foolish decision to register for the Muncie Mini Half Marathon.

The day was Aug. 8, and I was meeting four of the women who have become my training partners and friends. I had 7 miles on my training plan, a half marathon schedule that I modified to fit the Bourbon Chase; the ladies had nearly double that as they are training for a full. While we would normally do an out and back, this run was different. We ran a mile or so in the other direction to hit up a bathroom before running back to the start and then on the intended route. I thought I knew the turnaround but, well, I didn't and I ran nearly 8 miles.

Oops.

But, the slip up allowed me to do something that I wouldn't have considered otherwise: move up my long run schedule and add an 11- to 12-mile run on Sept. 11. It's not the perfect build-up to a 13.1 race (on Sept. 19) but it's adequate, especially as I plan to take the event casually and possibly use a run-walk strategy.

Also improving my odds for avoiding complete and utter failure is my steady increase in weekday mileage. I would love to say that it's intentional but it's one part desire to keep my FitBit seven-day step total above 100,000 and two parts my twisted mind, which thinks runs less than 4 miles are not as good as runs of 5 miles or farther. I'd like to change this mindset but, in this case, it has worked in my favor.

I've been lucky, too, that I've been feeling good with the increased mileage. I feel decent on most of my runs, and I've ended nearly every long running feeling like I could have done more. Physically, that is. Mentally, I'm not interested in doing the crazy long runs of marathon training.

Honestly, one of the biggest challenges has been monitoring my milk supply but that's a story for another day. Maybe.

So running ... here's what things have looked like on that front:

Week of Aug. 10

Monday: 5 miles
Tuesday: 5.1 miles (intervals)
Thursday: 4.5 miles, including strides
Saturday: Double – 6.1 miles in the morning, 3 miles in the afternoon

Week of Aug. 17

Monday: 4.6 miles, including strides
Tuesday: 5.5 miles, hills
Thursday: 4 miles
Saturday: 9 miles

Week of Aug. 24

Tuesday: 4.3 miles
Thursday: 6.5 miles, mix of hills and 400s
Friday: 5.1 miles
Saturday: 10 miles