Training Milestones

Since our trip to San Francisco, Mike and I have enjoyed three weekends in San Diego in a ROW in town. As a result, the last three weeks have been great training weeks for me and I finally feel like I’ve been able to follow my training plan as it was meant to be followed and get in some quality workouts.

The last three weeks I’ve completed my general aerobic runs with strides, my longish tempo run and my long run. This past week I also got in a mid-week long run of 12 miles. I described the strides in my last blog post, but the tempo runs are the ones that have made me feel like I’m really making progress.

Pfitzinger doesn’t make it easy on you with these tempo runs. The first week I ran 9 miles with 5 at half marathon pace, the 2nd week I ran 10 miles with 5 at half marathon pace, and this week I ran 10 miles with six miles at half marathon pace! Each week I’ve felt really good during this workout. I aimed for low to mid 8 min/miles for the “half marathon pace” portion, and nailed my splits. Each time, I ran hardest for the last mile and improved each week. The last two weeks I ran Mile #10 at a 7:50 min/mile!

This week was the best of all three weeks. Even though the race is 11 weeks away, good ol Pftiz already had me running 20 miles for my long run. To be fair, I am one week ahead of the plan because on Friday Mike and I are flying to Belize to spend 8 glorious days and nights relaxing and vacationing, and most likely not running at all. Regardless of the fact that I’m one week ahead, a 20 miler 11 weeks out from the race is certainly not something I’m used to.

And neither is a 52 mile week (Monday-Sunday). This week I ran the most miles I’ve ever run in one (Monday-Sunday) week. In the past, I’ve only run 3-4 days a week while training for a marathon or half marathon, usually because I’m also doing something else (P90X, triathlon, Insanity, etc). This week I was able to also get in two Dailey Method classes, but my main focus is running.

So, after a few crap runs in past weeks, I’m finally celebrating some progress in this training cycle. High mileage and some speedy runs! Also, I ran the most miles before work ever (12) and ran the most miles alone ever (14 of my 20 mile long run were solo). Another fun highlight was my Girls on Track team’s practice 5k on Thursday. I ran 3 miles with the girls as a replacement for my scheduled 5 mile recovery run. Each girl completed the 3.1 miles and we had a celebration afterward with treats.

I still don’t think a BQ is in the very near future, but I do think I’m making some significant progress toward my goal!

What kind of milestones do you look for in your training? Do you celebrate the milestones? I think I’m going to have a beer now to celebrate mine!