Half Marathon Training - Week 5 & 6

Week five was a self inflicted rest week. Knees and Achilles were aching, so I took 3 days off and did some shorter runs for the rest of the week. Only got in about 18 miles total for the week.

Week 6 was back in full swing.

Monday - 6 miles easy
Tuesday - 5 miles easy
Wednesday - 6 miles ( warmup: 3x1600 @ 8:59 w/800m jogs: cool down )

Intervals went well again. But it was super muggy, like breathing in a sauna! But I hit under my goal time. Actually the first mile interval was a 7m:52s mile. Best mile ever. Slowly making progress. Trying to focus on a faster cadence and shorter stride to speed myself up rather than trying to have a long stride. Seems to help.

Thursday - 5 miles easy
Friday - Rest
Saturday - 14 miles - 10m:47s average pace

So I was a little concerned about this run. It was a mile longer than I've ever run before and I was trying out a new route. I was also hitting the road about 15 minutes earlier this time. So the first half hour or so of my run was pretty dark still since I started at 4:15am. But the weather was cool and beautiful and I watched a lovely sunrise over the Illinois countryside. I like this new route through the woods and through farmland. I'll be doing it again next weekend. My body felt pretty good the rest of Saturday, but Sunday I was hurting pretty well. Lots of foam rolling, ice and NSAIDs and I'm coming back together for another week of work.