.Training

#OperationMCO was a little hit & miss this week. Although I was eating healthier, I wasn't eating as healthy as I wanted to. I find it hard to adjust when you get used to eating fatty or fried foods, and it doesn't help that they are delicious! I've also been bad with recording in my food journal; I started out with good intentions but as the week went by, I got lazy. I vow to be better next week!

In the few years I've been running half marathons, I haven't really followed any training program. I've looked up quite a few online however I've never followed them exactly. The one I have been trying to follow lately is two shorter runs during the week, and then a longer one on the weekend. Before I got sick, I was also trying to incorporate having one two run day on the weekend so I could prepare for my double run on June 14th, however unfortunately I haven't gotten back to that yet. This weekend, my plan is to run 11K tomorrow with some friends who are preparing for the Spartan Race in July, and then play ball hockey in the evening - so there won't be any time for a double run. That's ok though, as that's a lot of physical activity for one day.

I've decided to try something different before the Edmonton Half Marathon this year and try to up my personal best of 2:43 by maybe five to ten minutes. Before I ran Canmore last year, the Edmonton Half was my personal best, so I'm confident that this is an attainable goal, particularly because the course is mostly flat. Enter the Nike Running coaching program.

This program works on the Nike Running app and involves 12 weeks of running to prepare you for your next half marathon. I typed in the date of the half, and it has me starting on Monday. I chose "intermediate" over "beginner" simply because I've been running for a few years now, and even though I'm slow, I don't want to start over. I've been doing some training on my own so I think this will be a challenge, but I'm looking forward to it. The coach will have me running five times a week, cross training on Thursdays, and then a rest day on Sundays. This does change a little bit as the weeks go on, and some of the runs aren't just straight runs - they include intervals and different paces which is a type of training that I haven't done too much of. I'm hoping that I can stay strong and avoid getting injured during this time period so I can see how effective this program really is. The big challenges will be on week seven and week nine, when my scheduled long runs will be 14 miles. I've never run that long before! This will be a good test to see if I'll be close to running a marathon in the next few years, as that's not something I want to tackle until I can run a half in 2:15 or less. We'll see how it goes, but I'm feeling optimistic!

June is a ridiculously busy month for me, so I anticipate that most of these runs will be in the early morning. Thankfully the runs during the week for the most part will be completed in less than an hour, so I shouldn't have to get up too early. Even though I find it hard to get up in the mornings, I also think that the morning is the best time to run! It's nice and cool in the summer, it's quiet, and I find myself re-engerized for most of the day afterwards. 

One thing I do need to look into is the use of chews or gels to help with a pick me up during races. You aren't supposed to run super long distances with just water, so I'm going to need to do some research on which ones are good (and which ones are soy-free) and that don't taste like crap. Does anyone have any suggestions? I don't like the taste of artificial fruits and I'm not really into chocolate (I know, what's wrong with me?)

Until next time,

xo

-Dianne