Sunday, my brother emailed to ask if I want to run a half with him on March 15. I’ve cut way back on the running since the marathon (an easy 8-9 miles once a week on weekends, at the most) and have been concentrating on the bike and weights. But, my brother and I aren’t very close, and I feel honored that he’d ask me to do something like this with him. So, I pulled out my FIRST Half Marathon Training schedule and I’m trying to figure out how to squeeze it down from 18 weeks to eight! I mean, I could go out there and run/complete a half right now, but of course, I want to improve my time and have fun and not hurt and all that as well. 

So, last night I hit the treadmill for speedwork. The program called for 12 intervals of 400m (1/4 mi) at half marathon pace -75 seconds with 90 sec. rest intervals in between. Well, that didn’t happen. But, I do feel good about what I did. One mile warmup: .10 @ 4.5 mph (fast walk); .40 @ 6.0; .25 @ 6.5; .25 @ 6.9. Then intervals: 1 x 400m @ 8.0 mph; 1 x 400 @ 8.2 mph; 1 x 400 @ 8.4 mph; 2 x 400 @ 8.2 mph; 1 x 400 @ 800 mph. By that time my legs were feeling really fatigued. I did my rest intervals at anywhere between 4.2 mph (walking) to 6.0 mph. 1 mile cooldown from 6.9 down to 3.9 mph. Less than an hour, but I felt good and whipped afterward.

No side stitches, no aches or pains, so this was very good for me. I guess I’ll just have to lay off the lower body weights and any hard cycling for now. I just finished reading a really good article in Runner’s World about the aging marathoner. VERY INFORMATIVE (unfortunately, it doesn’t look like it is on their website; probably because it is in a recent issue). The key thing I took from it though is that recovery time is much more important the older you get. Unfortunately, I don’t like taking recovery time! But, I need to do it.


Continue to take care of those aches and pains everyone.