Half Marathon Training : Week 9 Recap

Today's motivation via The Chi-Athlete


Monday : 4 miles / 38:45 / 9:38 pace
Ran through the Frick Park trails.  I decided to run in the afternoon while it was hot out to better acclimate to summer running.  When I went it was about 80 degrees and humid.  The trails kept me nice and cool and it was a great run!  I sweat like a beast but I missed trail running.  I'll be doing a post on trail running tips next week, so keep an eye out for that!

Tuesday : Group Centergy
Another great class.  I tried to really focus and get the most out of class, since we're nearing the end of this release and I know it really well.  I don't even have to think about the poses or routine, so I tried to get deeper in to stretches and it felt amazing!

Wednesday : Hump Day Hills with True Runner Run Club
For today's workout, a huge group did repeats up Shady Ave in Shadyside.  For each repeat, we were given a bracelet that was worth $5 in True Runner bucks.  Great incentive to keep running, right?  We jogged a mile there and a mile back, so the total run was about 4 miles (I kept my watch off).  It was a great workout!

Thursday : 3.1 miles / 28:30 / 9:11 pace
Nice, slow run on the trails in Schenley.  I felt great and had to keep holding back my pace, so I was shocked that I ran it so quickly (for me).  The weather was perfect for me- upper 60s and sunny.

Group Power
Eased up on my weights so I wouldn't be too sore for Saturday, and walked around the indoor track during the leg track.  Felt good and strong!

Friday : Foam Roll and light yoga
Didn't want to do anything the day before the race, so I just took it easy and rolled out my sore muscles.  I tried a yoga for runners youtube video and the stretches felt AMAZING! 

Saturday : 5 miles / 43:45 / 8:45 pace
Team Alex 5 miler.  I started out way too fast, and let the humidity and heat mess with my mind.  My splits were 8:19, 8:39, 8:36, 8:36, 9:20 (ouch).  Good practice for what NOT to do in my half marathon! Ran about a mile warmup and cooldown.

Sunday : 2 hours ice skating
Went to an ice rink with Dan and skated for two hours.  Had a lot of fun and I guess it counts as cross training?

Total Miles : 18 miles

Not my best week, and now I know that I have a lot of work to do before my race!  Only 3 weeks to go!

Check out my previous training recaps:
Week 1
Week 2
Week 3
Week 4
Week 5 
Week 6 
Week 7 and 8

Comments

  1. HoHo RunsMay 17, 2015 at 5:01 PM

    Humidity is a total game changer! I think you still had a great race. And yes, ice skating is definitely good cross training AND a lot more pleasant than running in the heat and humidity!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Gretchen BraunMay 17, 2015 at 5:27 PM

      Thanks so much! I can use all the encouragement right now so I appreciate the comment :) I'll try to stay positive!

      Delete
  2. UnknownMay 17, 2015 at 5:14 PM

    That is still a great time for that race. The humidity can always be a game changer especially since it is so early in the season. Keep up those good runs

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Gretchen BraunMay 17, 2015 at 5:27 PM

      Thanks Shaun! You're making me feel a lot better :) I'll just have to work harder this week and stay positive! Thanks for the comment :)

      Delete
  3. UnknownMay 18, 2015 at 6:20 PM

    Don't let that race get to you! It was hard to breathe in that humidity, let alone run a race in it! It sounds like it was good practice for your goal race from a pacing strategy & also just to get acclimated to hot weather running. That True Runner run sounds like fun! Makes me want to join in some week.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Gretchen BraunMay 18, 2015 at 6:44 PM

      You should!! You can run with dan and me :) its a lot of fun! And thanks for the support! You're the best :)

      Delete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Relationship Rules I Broke (and WEDDING PHOTOS!)

Image
Happy Thursday everyone! Today I have a different type of post to share today.  I don't talk about relationships or my dating life much on the blog, but I'm switching it up today!  I got married last Friday, and I thought it would be fun to share some relationship rules that I broke while Dan and I dated. I'll also be sharing some wedding pictures!  We got married at the Butterfly Falls at the Hidden Valley Inn in Belize (more on the Inn in upcoming posts!), and the pictures turned out absolutely amazing.  Since we had a "just the two of us" ceremony, there's not much to talk about the actual wedding.  In lieu of a full post on that, I'll be sharing some background information on our relationship, along with wedding photos and some #ThrowbackThursday pictures.  I hope you enjoy (and I promise- back to running stuff next week!) Guys are immature, so date someone older I've always read in magazines (which, by the way, have the worst datin...
Read more

Review- Group Power

Image
Happy Weekend everyone!  Today, I'll be doing a review of another group exercise I do at my gym called Group Power !  Let's get right into it. First off, the description in our program guide is "This 60-minute barbell program strengthens all your major muscles in an inspiring, motivating group environment with simple, athletic movements such as squats, lunges, presses and curls." I don't exactly look like this when I'm curling..but you get the idea! Let me tell you, this is one intense workout!  For the entire 60 minutes, we're constantly moving and lifting and by the end I'm a pool of sweat!  We work out all the major muscle groups - Legs, Chest, Triceps, Biceps, Glutes, Shoulders, and Core with light to moderate weights.  We also use a step to do exercises like chest presses and split squats. For each song, we focus on one muscle group, and do a variety of exercises with lots of repetitions, set to the beat of the music.  The tempo of the ...
Read more

Top Five Friday #46

Image
Happy Friday everyone!  Today I have a beefed up Top Five post for you all.  I feel like I've been skimping on these posts lately, so I made sure that this one is packed full of all my favorite products, some recent outfits, new songs, and TV Shows. I've got it all today, and I hope this makes up for the past few weeks!  As I mentioned yesterday, Dan and I finally got our offer accepted on a house, so the past few weeks have been really hectic.  Now that all of our applications and inspections are done, it should (hopefully) be smooth sailing from here!  Wish us luck, and now let's get to the favorites! Empty Products In the past, I've dedicated entire blog posts to reviews on empty products (you can see them here ).  I know that some of you don't like beauty-focused posts, so instead of completely nixing these reviews, I wanted to incorporate them into my favorites! I'm going through lots of products now that I'm on a spending freeze, so I thought...
Read more