Made it through the first month of half marathon training! January definitely went as expected — slowly started to build miles in and incorporated cross training. And I stuck to my loose plan but definitely changed things up. Here’s a look back at the month.
How I felt this month:
Great! The good thing about running consistently in general in life, is when it comes time to actually start training for your next race, you don’t have to start from scratch. So running a few miles was fine and felt good.
What I ran this month:
In January, I logged about 33 miles. I only ran outside once since it was a polar vortex, but luckily my first official training run was a beautiful day outside in the north shore of Pittsburgh at the Marathon Kickoff Training Run. Click here to view my actual training I am keeping track of in a Google spreadsheet. In addition to runs, I did Orange Theory (which is running for half the class), barre, and a few yoga classes.
Roadblocks this month:
The weather! I am usually fine with running in the cold but when there’s snow, forget it. And since this last week has been exceptionally cold and in the minus temps, the treadmill and I were BFFs. The treadmill isn’t terrible but it’s so monotonous. I am going to listen to one of the podcasts that fellow blogger Courtney suggested on an upcoming run to break things up. And maybe scare the crap out of me, I don’t know (gotta love true crime!) I also had a cold the second week so I skipped my long run that weekend. I am all about listening to your body, especially because I am just doing the half and it’s so early still, so it’s OK I skipped it.
Goals and what I am looking forward to in February:
Speed! Well, my kind of speed (which isn’t fast). I feel like I am always slower on the treadmill, so I am looking forward to getting outside more in February to build up my speed and get closer to 10:00 miles instead of 10:30-10:45 like I’ve been tracking. Plus outside will give me more opportunity for hills, something I do a little on the treadmill but not enough of. I am also looking forward to another group training run, the Half Marathon Kickoff Training Run. This is hosted by P3R and the Steel City Road Runners on Saturday, February 9 in the Southside. Before this year, I’ve honestly never gone to one of these organized training runs, but after attending the one in January, I’m sold! It was a nice opportunity to run with other people achieving the same goals, plus it had an official race feel with an announcer, music, a start line, gear for sale and refreshments! And I ran the entire time with the 10:30 pace group so it was nice to keep a solid pace and run with other people. I am going to get to as many of these as possible. You have to do a long training run anyway, so may as well go to this! Oh and did I mention it’s free? In addition to offering pace groups, they offer different mileage options. The one next weekend will have options for 4, 6, 9 and 12 mile-loops. I am aiming for 6! RSVP here.
Get caught up!
- Read my last training post here.
- Follow the other official bloggers:
- And read the Pittsburgh Marathon’s official blog for guest posts from all of us!
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Disclosure: In exchange for promotion of the event, P3R is providing me with free race registration and merchandise. All opinions are my own, as always.
