My Two Week Half Marathon Training: End of Week One

The 3" Ribeye at Cagle's in Lubbock, Texas!

One week ago I decided to sign up for the Denver Rock and Roll Half Marathon on October 9. That gave me all of two weeks to train after basically taking the summer off from running races and just enjoying staying in shape by riding my mountain bike and running the trails in the Ridgeline Open Space near my house. One week later I have logged 18.2 miles and running some of the best times since I set my PR in the Kansas City Half last October (1:46 even).

This week I was on the road, traveling to Lubbock, Texas, and Wooster, Ohio, meeting with the people who provide the great-tasting beef I eat every day to fuel my training (thanks, cattlemen and women, for working hard every day to care for the animals you raise to make beef!). Wednesday in Lubbock, I went for a run on the campus of Texas Tech University. I love running on college campuses. There are always plenty of sights to see, running by basketball arenas, baseball diamonds, football stadiums and coeds on the way to class!



The Dos Rita at Ruby Tequila's in Lubbock.

Texas Tech is a huge campus so I could easily run six miles without covering the same ground twice. I wanted to run eight minute miles but wasn’t really feeling it as I left the Overton Hotel towards campus and finished the first mile in 8:40. I picked up the pace a little and finished mile two in 8:10, but then I started feeling good and finished the final four miles running sub-8s (7:51, 7:53, 7:55, 7:34). I really pushed that last mile trying to finish under 48 minutes but the final score was 48:09.33 (8:01/mile).



The Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center
in Wooster, Ohio

Two days later I woke up in Wooster to cool, rainy, 50 degree weather, a full 45 degrees cooler than Lubbock (where they haven’t seen as much rain all summer as Ohio got in the past 24 hours). I ran on the campus of the Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center (OARDC), site of the 2012 National Beef Ambassador contest. I really wanted to run sub-8s today so pushed hard from the start and finished the first mile in 7:54. The second mile was mostly uphill but I kept pushing and my Garmin registered mile two at 8:11. Determined to finish strong, and will a little help from a grade I ran the fastest mile I can recall in a long time (7:08) and finished the 5K in 24:00 flat (7:44/mile).

I feel good about what I accomplished this week, especially considering the long hours on seven flights traveling from DEN-LBB-DEN-ORD-CLE-ORD-DEN (on the last leg as I write). Saturday is a rest day then on Sunday I’ll do an LSD run (long slow distance) of 10 miles (at around 8:30/mile). Then it will be time to taper towards the run on Sunday the 9th, with runs of five miles on Tuesday, three on Thursday and one on Saturday (to keep the legs loose and blood flowing).

I have no idea if this training program will work, other than my experience following a similar routine last year prior to the Go! St. Louis and KC half marathons. And so far so good for the Denver Rock and Roll Half. I’m thinking 8:30s is very doable so am revising my goal to run under 1:50.

Ride on!

Daren