Checking In With Less Than One Month to Go Before My Next Half Marathon

I usually don’t do a week-by-week post because quite honestly, I don’t feel like my weeks are that interesting to warrant a weekly post. I don’t run many races like some other runners do (now I run only three races a year) so I don’t have that many race reports and my training isn’t that unusual. However, every now and then I do like to do a post with a brief check-in and how my training is going so far. For those of you who don’t already know, I’m running a half marathon in all 50 states and am getting down to the final ones.

Later this month I’ll be running my 49th half marathon in Nebraska, state number 47. My last race was Star Valley Half Marathon, Thayne, Wyoming- 46th state, which feels like an eternity ago even though it was just a little over two months ago. I like to take a full two weeks off of running in-between half marathons and I had just enough time to do that before I began my current training cycle. However, I was hiking in the mountains of Wyoming the week after my race so my legs didn’t get much of a break until the following week.

Hiking in Wyoming after the race

It’s always kind of strange when I have time off from running and I feel a bit out of sorts at first. The break is always useful, however, and one I know my body needs. Now that I’m only running races three times a year (one in the spring, one in the summer, and one in the fall) I also end up taking an extended break at least from training but not from running entirely in the winter. However, that won’t happen until after this race, and I digress so back to my training.

So, how has my training been going through this hot, muggy summer we’ve had? Pretty good, really. I tend to adjust pretty well to hot, humid weather and although I wouldn’t say it was easy because by no means was it ever easy to run through the high temperatures with high humidity on top of that, I was able to hit my target times when I did speedwork.

With the training plan I’ve been using for the last few half marathons I’ve run, I have one day a week where I incorporate fartleks and one day a week where I have a tempo run. I also have two days a week where I run anywhere from 30 to 45 minutes (longer towards the end of my training cycle) and finish with 20-second strides. One day a week I have my long run that starts at 6 miles and goes up to 14 miles. Twice during the training plan I run 14 miles and a few times during the plan I run 11 or 12 miles. The 14-mile runs are meant to be slow and easy and the 11 or 12 mile runs are meant to be partially at race pace (the latter half).

There were a few days this summer when it reached near 100 degrees where I live and on those days I ran on my treadmill at home but on other days when it was upper 80’s or low 90’s, I sucked it up and ran outside. On some days I would run in the morning but the real issue with summer running in the south is even if you run in the morning, it will still be humid and it won’t exactly be cool. So you may be running in 75 degrees with 70% humidity in the morning, and you’re still soaked with sweat after a few minutes of running. The humidity tends to drop a bit as the temperature goes up, so you can choose if you want it to be a bit cooler but higher humidity or ungodly hot and less humid. Either way sucks but then again we get rewarded with mild winters, so there is that at least.

I loved standup paddle boarding this summer as one of my cross-training exercises!

I managed to run every day I was supposed to so far, although there were one or two runs that I remember I had to cut short a bit due to other time constraints (job, family mostly). The one area that has slacked off, especially lately, has been my weight training. It’s been difficult to run five days a week, go to the gym for weight training, go to yoga class, stretch, foam roll, and cross-train (standup paddle boarding on Sundays during the summer, bike riding when the lake house is closed in the fall) in addition to working full-time and having time for family obligations. Usually it’s not an issue to get to the gym for weight training but when my daughter went back to school, things got busier in our house, and that’s one thing that fell to the wayside for me lately.

Last weekend it actually started to feel like fall and those few days of cooler, less humid weather were fantastic, but unfortunately it didn’t last. Just this week, the temperatures were back in the 90’s, so I guess summer isn’t over yet here. I do still have a few weeks to go before the race, though, so I should have at least a couple of weeks of cooler weather to run in before the half marathon. I can’t wait for that!

How about you guys? Are you training for a fall race? How has your running been going lately?

Happy running!

Donna