Category Archives: Running

Half Marathon Training: Week 1

Posted by hellyontherun in Running and tagged with , ,

A pretty uneventful week one, but I’ll take it! As I mentioned in my previous post, I take full advantage of easy days, lol!!

7/2-7/8

Monday:

5 miles, 9:03 avg.

Tuesday:

3 miles, 8:50 avg. Cross train at gym. I hate burpees. I hate mountain climbers.

Wednesday:

5.5 miles, WU-3x1mile (w/90sRI)-CD

I had low expectations going into these mile repeats as 1.) it’s hella hot here in Phoenix and 2.) i’m hella out of shape. Keeping that in mind, I didn’t sweat (ha!) the fact that my paces were not close at all to what I expect my mile repeat to be at (which I don’t really even know, lol).

7:24
7:15
7:06

Focusing on positives (which is the only way to go), I was pleased that I was able to negative split.

Celebrating ‘Merica with the run club and the fam ❤

Thursday:

Glorious rest day

Friday:

3 miles, 9:30ish pace??

The watch died mid-run and when I realized this, I cut the 5 miles to 3 and called it a day. Because does the run even count if it’s not on Garmin? Really though, I started way too late at 7 a.m. and it was 96 degrees out. I was done anyway.

1% ain’t gonna cut it, Helly

Saturday:

10 miles, 8:50 avg.

This was a hard run. It was hot (notice a repeat here?) at 90 degrees at 5 a.m. It’s just been hard for me to get going. I love the heat and much prefer it to freezing temps, but for some reason, I have not acclimated well this summer.

I’ve been finishing with a last one fast one to help my self-esteem and I was happy that I had the strength to finish the last mile at 8:03.

 

26 total miles–And that was week one in a nutshell. I can tell this is going to be a rough cycle already, but I’m going to channel my inner Phoenix Marathon training to get this done. It’s awesome to improve as a runner, but it only gets that much harder to keep on improving, lol!!!

–Are you ever intimidated by your own progress? Like, you’ve set a monster PR and then you wonder how/if you’ll top that?

 

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It’s Go Time!!

Posted by hellyontherun in Running and tagged with ,

Hello, July!!!

Today marked the first day of training!!

The last week of June had me doing some workouts to prepare for what is ahead, lol! I always seem to have to do some pre-training for training, ha!!

As I mentioned in my previous post, I took a nice long break after Phoenix Marathon, so I’m coming into this cycle at a weird fitness spot–not having completely lost what I gained from BQ training but definitely not hitting paces I once did.

I honestly wanted to enjoy my break. So often I see people run hard ALL THE TIME, even when they’re not training for anything. I get not wanting to “lose fitness” –and that type of training might work for some– but really, the body needs a break. Mine certainly did.

I have zero concerns about getting my fitness back. I have zero concerns about hitting my paces. I know that it won’t happen right away, but I know it will happen. So I don’t worry about it. And I don’t shy away from easing it on the gas. Ain’t no shame in my easy running game.

And my easy runs are easy..none of this, easy for the Instagram pics type of easy. I’m talking 90sec-2 minutes slower than whatever a goal pace might be. In fact, I don’t even look at my watch when I run easy. I just run what my body feels. And it’s interesting because the first miles will be slow but because I eased it in, my body revs up naturally and wouldn’t you know it, I end up with a nice progressive run.

10 minute first mile, 7:35 last mile

Anyway, last week was a few of those types of runs coupled with some strength training at a local gym. I received a free month with a race registration and I’ve decided July is perfect to start making gains (ha!). I’ll be going twice a week and after the month is over, hopefully continue the exercises I learn at home.

I’ve never trained for a half marathon. I can already tell it’s going to be intense. Kinda excited!!!

–Do you prefer training for half marathons or full marathons? Or what other distance is your preference?

–Is it difficult for you to run easy? (I don’t struggle with this at all, lol!)

You Have Some Splaining To Do!!!

Posted by hellyontherun in Half Marathon, Running and tagged with , , , , , ,

 


I know, I know. What the hell happened to Helly?!!?

Well, to be perfectly honest, I was tired. Training for Phoenix and qualifying for Boston took a lot out of me and even thought I took a good, long break, I needed another good, long break! Lol!! So here we are, four months later….

I finally feel like I’m “back to normal”–back to feeling exciting about running, about new goals. You know I wouldn’t be back here on the blog if I didn’t have new goals 😉

But before I get to that, I have some exciting news (and another explanation to my absence and lack of running)…

MY HUSBAND QUALIFIED FOR BOSTON!!!!!

It was our dream to go to Boston together and when I qualified in Phoenix, we knew that the pressure was on him to get his BQ. So the focus became on that–Ben took full advantage of my break and ran 6 days a week, strength trained like a mad man, and on June 10 ran a 2:58 at the Light at the End of the Tunnel Marathon in Washington!!!

Me and my sub 3 marathoner ❤

We both had monster PRs for our BQs–with both of us cutting 15 minutes to get them (me 3:44—>3:29 and him 3:13—>2:58). We honestly still can’t believe it!! It was such an emotional day, as evident by this picture below–him crossing the finish line, and me behind him feeling *everything* We booked our hotel for Boston and now the waiting begins!!!!

BUT, of course I’m incapable of just sitting and watching the time go by. I’ve decided to specifically train for a half marathon this fall (11/4) and shoot for a PR (my PR is 1:39 so you can imagine how hard it’ll be to beat that!). I’ve never solely trained for a half as I’ve always done them in the midst of marathon training; so, I’m curious to see how/what I can do if I only focused on that. I’m back with my coach, and training starts July 1st!!!

I’ll be on the blog chronicling this craziness — I hope you join me for the ride!!!

xoxo,

helly