Half Marathon Week 11

I am back on the wagon of running. After two weeks of absolutely no running (with no good excuse, when considering my goal of a half marathon), this week I ran, and I ran a lot!

The plan looked like:
Tuesday - 4 miles
Thursday - 5 miles
Saturday - 5 miles
Sunday - 11 miles

I go a jump start for the week on Monday. My friend asked me to go and run our Rancho run, I figured it would be a fun way to reinvigorate my running spirit. The result was a great workout of running/hiking intervals for a total of 5.5 miles.

On Tuesday I was thankful that I had run on Monday. I was not feeling well, had actually stayed home from work, and somehow needed to run 4 miles. Well that wasn't going to happen, but in the afternoon I managed to get myself out of the house and cover 3 miles, half running and half walking. Definitely better than nothing.

I managed to get Thursday's run completed before work. 5 miles as prescribed, done early so I wouldn't have to worry about it after a late afternoon meeting at work.

Yesterday I should have just gotten out of bed and done my 5 miles again. But I did not. We had plans to meet a friend at 8:45 in San Francisco and a few other things. By the time I was home and ready to run it was almost 5. I could have ran, but decided not to in an effort to preserve myself for 11 miles today. A good decision I think. My legs would have still been tired this morning if I had run late yesterday.

Long run turn around view.

So today is the day it was really all about. I can prep for a half marathon and miss some of the shorter miles and be okay, but to not hit the longer runs would not be beneficial to me at all. Today's 11 miles felt totally badass, or rather they made me feel like a badass! The first mile was easy and immediately after it I started telling myself, 'you're so close, just a few more like this and you'll have it in the bag' HAH!! just a few more, right. I've realized a little benefit to running the same trail like I do, especially the way that I always run out half of my goal distance and turn around; I am very familiar with my course, so when I add mileage (like the 3 I added today), the 'new' ground I cover is in the middle of my run, and by the time I am actually running the additional miles I am back in my homestretch where I would be hard pressed to give up, where I am also so comfortable that I can tick off the quarter mile increments by a particular tree or bush. Today's turn around spot was another interesting view, crossing under the convergence of Highways 101 & 85, an interesting change from my last turn around spot. Well my legs got wobbly by mile 7, this run has led me to resolve to get a camelpack, and most of all I survived!!

Tired, but alive... post 11 miles. Stretched out at a park table, and then had a brief rest on the table.

The rest of today is dedicated to eating yummy food, Left Bank for lunch and homemade Eggplant Parmesan for dinner. Oh and laundry, of course laundry.

My stats immediately after the run... think I'm going to be okay.