It’s pretty easy to know that I’m nearing the end of the half-marathon training program…because I’m exhausted!! This week was a toughie but a goodie at the same time.
Tuesday was a pretty average 3 mile run – nothing special – we ran with Boomer who loved it!
Wednesday was a 5 mile run which I killed – I ran my fastest time for a 5 mile at 47.08 mins and my fastest mile with an 8.49 min/mile which felt fantastic and lead to glowing smiles, high-fives with Kathy and sore muscles the next day!
Thursday sucked! It was a 3 mile run but unfortunately it was crazy hot here on Thursday. I think it was about 24C while we were running and I hated every second of that run. I was sore, tired and sweating like crazy – I really do not handle the heat well at all.
Yesterday though was a different story. Heading out to run an 11 miler is really psychologically daunting – knowing that you’re going to be out there running for nearly 2 hours is most definitely a feat of mental endurance. One of the most important things I’ve learnt over this training program is that getting your head together before the run makes all the difference in terms of how hard you’re willing to push to keep going.
The run itself was blissfully uneventful, I put one foot in front of the other and just ran. Not too fast, not too slow – I didn’t have to fight the overwhelming urge to stop nor have to talk to myself like a crazy person to keep going. I ran 11 miles in just over 1 hour 51 minutes and I’m starting to finally feel like this crazy idea to run a half-marathon might just about be feasible….only 2 weeks left now!
Oh and my favourite part of running 11 miles? Eating the 1100 calories I burned in the form of cheese and chocolate (my two favourite things!)
i'm so not into running, but the extra 1100 calories in chocolate and cheese sounds awesome!
-- jackie - jade and oak
Posted by: jackie | February 24, 2014 at 09:59 PM