[week one] towpath half marathon training

I'm relatively new to the running world, but have always found a lot of my inspiration from running blogs. Despite spending a lot of time making training plans, my follow through leaves a bit to be desired. I have some time goals this year, and while they might be a little big and hairy, I would love to see what I can accomplish with some good old fashioned hard work. 

Monday: 1 mile warm-up, 6 x 400 @ 1:50 with 1:50 rest, 1 mile cool-down. I have never really done speedwork, but since it seems to be the way you get faster, this training plan involves weekly speedwork. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, and I felt great afterwards. Things really step up this week though, and I have to admit that I am very nervous! 

Tuesday: 2.5 miles @ 10:52. Went on a run around the neighborhood with my dog, Abby. She loved it, and I was dragging a little bit. I followed it up with an evening Thai Yoga/Vinyasa class with one of my good friends. We both agreed that although the class was challenging, we basically both just wanted a Thai Yoga Massage... 

Wednesday: 3 mile tempo @ 9:09. Eesh, this was a doozy. The plan called for one mile warm-up, 3 miles at my goal race pace of 9:07, and one mile cool-down. I made it through with tempo miles of 9:09, 9:08, and 9:07, but with a whole lot of stopping. This made me very concerned that my 2:00 half marathon goal is a little out of reach, but I will wait a couple more weeks before reevaluating that. I haven't been running seriously for a while, so hopefully my fitness will pick up. I ended up covering 5 miles with an average pace of 9:41. 

Later that night I went to a spin class at this wonderful new place, Harness Cycle in Ohio City. I've gone to a few classes there, and while I have liked all of them, this Wednesday night class with Danielle was amazing. I was expecting to be seriously dragging after that tempo run, and would have canceled except that I couldn't get my money back that late. However, Danielle hit us with an awesome 90s mix, and I found it to be one of my best classes yet! 

Thursday: rest! 

Friday: 2.5 easy miles with B and the dogs on the towpath. The weather was pretty crappy, but it is still always nice to get out of the house with the dogs. 

I wish it was still warm enough for shorts! Just had to throw in a picture of my fave running partner!

Saturday: Unplanned rest day. I had 4 miles at a long run pace on the books, but ended up just having a very lazy weekend. Hopefully this week will be better! 

Sunday: Rest. I considered making up the long run, but my cozy couch got the best of me. 

Here's what's on deck for this week: 

Monday - spin 

Tuesday - speedwork. 12x400s - yikes! 

Wednesday - easy run 

Thursday - 4 mile tempo 

Friday - easy run 

Saturday - 4 mile long run 

Sunday - rest 

There's a cold front in Cleveland right now, and I still haven't found a treadmill to use, so I'm going to have to dig deep! 

Any suggestions for motivation for winter running?? I seem to do okay in the teens, but with the single digit forecasts this week, its going to be tough!