153(ish) miles. 45(ish) runs. Lots of cross-training and early (and mostly cold) mornings. Different cities in addition to Pittsburgh (Orlando, New York City, Houston, Clemson, SC, and Dallas). It’s been a whirlwind four months and now training is done and it’s now finally half marathon week! Here’s a look at my last month of training.

How I felt this month: TIRED. My schedule has been too busy lately and that’s definitely impacted my training. I never want to “brag” about being busy, and I know literally everyone is, but my schedule felt a bit overwhelming between commitments, work, work travel and pounding the pavement to run and then post/blog about it. This resulted in two bad runs where I was just OVER it and cut it short. I may sound like a broken record, but I am all about listening to your body, because like I always say I am a mediocre jogger and not an elite runner. 🙂 I am not training to PR; I am training to do another run and have fun. So if I missed out on an additional five or 10 miles, so what?
On a different note, the last two months I’ve been eating super healthy and barely drinking. I did a dry(ish) January and just sort of kept going, since I haven’t had a huge urge to drink lately. Not that I am a huge drinker to begin with, but I like a glass (or 3) of wine or beer weekly, and I’ve cut out a lot of it. I mentioned in my last post how I’ve also been doing Faster Way to Fat Loss. On long run days, I am certainly not fasting but overall I just feel healthier, so I hope that helps!
What I ran this month: In April, I ran 61.39 miles, which is 22 miles more than March. This week coming up I’ll add another 20 miles between final training runs and the race on Sunday. I definitely added a good amount of mileage the last month. While I only got up to 11 miles in my long runs, since this is my fifth half marathon, I feel prepared. Here is my April (and coming up these last two days/first week of May plan):
Roadblocks this month: My tiredness, as mentioned. But I feel trained and ready since it was only two bad runs and if you don’t have bad days when you run, you’re doing it wrong.
Goals for this week/Sunday: My goal this week is to drink a ton of water (which I usually do anyway) and get a good night sleep every night and go to bed early. Since I’ve been feeling tired on my runs, this will help me get ready for a busy race weekend. Saturday I am running the 5K with my husband and then Sunday will be half marathon #5. I don’t have a time goal in mind but given this season of training, I’ll probably finish about 2:10, 2:15. I don’t know if I’ll ever break two hours. On Sunday, my goal is to start steady since, like most runners, I weave in and out of the busy race start and probably run a minute faster over pace, tiring myself out early and setting myself up for a slower second half. Since I’ve trained with the 10:00 and 10:30 pace groups in several group long runs this season, I am going to find and stay with them. The 10:30 group felt too slow to me, but I actually end up finishing with an average pace closer to 10:00 each time, so I think that’s going to help me a lot. And NO walking except through some of the water stations for 30 seconds to one minute. Walking seriously hurts you (literally, you get sore!) so none for me, thanks. And then I will visualize my post-race beer and food the whole time — that always helps! Finally, I plan to lay out my clothes/gear, finalize my playlist (will share in my race recap) and just enjoy. The Pittsburgh Marathon is always such a pleasure to run, with nice people and great crowds/volunteers. My advice to first-time runners is to relax and enjoy and let the energy of the day carry you through. Good luck to everyone (especially those full marathoners). LET’S DO THIS AND MOVE, PITTSBURGH!
Get caught up!
- Read my last training recap post here.
- Follow the other official bloggers:
- And read the Pittsburgh Marathon’s official blog for guest posts from all of us!
This post is part of my 2019 Dick’s Sporting Goods Pittsburgh Marathon / UPMC Health Plan Pittsburgh Half Marathon training series.
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.
