TotR: Spring Training Update

This week’s Tuesdays on the Run topic is a spring training update, which is appropriate since this is the last week of my Lincoln Half Marathon training cycle before tapering starts. Thanks to Erika, Patty and April for hosting, as always!

I had some very specific goals for this half marathon training cycle to help me meet my goal of running a half marathon with a strong mental effort and hopefully the sub-2:30 run I think I have in my legs. This is a great time to look back at how I’ve done with those goals.

– Mental training: Like lots of us, my brain tends to get in way of putting in the race efforts that I think my body is trained for. My biggest disappointments from race experiences have been frustration with giving up more so than the actual time on the clock, so while I’d like a time PR for this race, my bigger goal is to feel like I put in consistent effort with a strong finish and that requires a lot of mental work. I’ve done lots of reading about mental training (like here) and have also done regular workouts targeting my mental oomph. This morning I totally rocked a 2 mile tempo run, which was such a huge exercise in mental strength. I’ve found tempo runs, which I’ve done for the first time in this cycle, have been really great at overcoming the urge to give up when my body has more in it. I’ve also had lots of runs with a “strong finish” and race interval practice runs. I feel like I’ve made huge progress with this and just have to remind myself over and over for race day that I can do this and I have done this.

Does this playset look like a Tardis to anyone else? Or am I the only one geeky enough to see Doctor Who in random places on the run?

– Strength training: We all know how important strength training is for running, both in terms of avoiding injury and in gaining speed. I’ve been much more consistent with strength training this cycle than ever before and I think it has really paid off in terms of injury avoidance (knock on wood). The left hip pain that had been irritating me since fall is now gone and hasn’t reared its head again. The only injury I’ve had so far (knock on wood) is a little Achilles irritation after the Leprechaun Chase 10K and that settled down with a week of walking and strength rehabilitation.

– Pay attention to paces: For my interval runs, tempo runs and hill work, I kept track of my paces and targeted those based on my target goal pace of 11:27 on race day. I ran those two tempo miles today at 10:09 which is super speedy for me! I haven’t focused as much on pace during my long runs, other than in my last “strong finish” miles and a couple of workouts with race intervals thrown in, but looking back I can see how all of my runs are getting steadily faster as a result of all of this training. Definitely what you want to see 🙂

– Yoga for recovery and flexibility: I haven’t done as much dedicated yoga time as I was hoping, but I’ve been really good about regularly working in a few yoga stretches during the day. I’ve also been using my Stick and foam roller, which is helping a lot. I’ll definitely be sure to keep the foam rolling and yoga stretches up as I transition into taper mode to keep my legs ready to go!

Overall, I feel like this has been a really good training cycle. I’ve loved this training plan (thanks to Another Mother Runner) and feel like I’ve learned a lot thanks to the mental work, tempo runs and actually focusing more on form and what my muscles are doing. I feel like I’ve set myself up nicely for a successful race day so we’ll see how things go!

How’s your Spring Training going? Any big events coming up?

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