Week #4 of the New Plan

I'm half way through my 9-week Runner's World 1/2 marathon training plan! Actually, whether I actually run the 1/2 or not, I really like this plan. I think I'll stick with it even after the 9 weeks are up, and just juggle the workouts around. Or just start all over again, so that I don't get caught up in building mileage every week (and then hurting myself). It'll give me a chance to slow down, only run 10 or 15 miles a week, before building back up to 30. So far so good.

Today's scheduled run was 3 miles, 3x[2:00, 2:30] AI, 2 miles. I HATE those last 2 miles after a quad-burning interval workout, so I've been doing one of those miles at the start. That way I only have a 1 mile cool down at the end. The 2 minute intervals were fine, much better than last week. I was dreading the 2:30's, but I actually ran them faster!!! What's really weird is that I never, not even once, hit the 10-min-mile mark today! Even my "cool down" mile, which felt like I was straggling along, was sub-10. I finally feel like I'm getting faster, but nowhere near as fast as I'd like to be. Patience.

I had to do the 2:00 intervals and 2:30's separately, because that was the only way I could program the Garmin. It worked out okay, though. Overall, I did 6.73 miles.

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1st 4 miles:

Run time: 00:38:30

Distance: 4.06 mi

Avg. Pace: 09:29 / mi
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3 x [2:00] AI

Run time: 00:06:00

Distance: 0.73 mi

Avg. Pace: 08:12 / mi
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3 x [2:30] AI

Run time: 00:07:30

Distance: 0.94 mi

Avg. Pace: 07:57 / mi
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Last mile

Run time: 00:09:50

Distance: 1.00 mi

Avg. Pace: 09:49 / mi

TOTAL: 6.73 MILES