Last week was my first week at 28 miles and it went pretty well. There were a couple of days with a very small amount of soreness in my knees, but nothing that didn’t work itself out after a few miles. I’ve now made it through a few days of 2 runs. This is a result of late afternoon runs with my 11 year old daughter who is building a base for her first cross country season.

I’ll be upping my “easy” pace from 9:37/mi to 9:27/mi this week. That marks a change from a VDOT of 43 to a VDOT of 44. VDOT is basically a measure of one’s running ability based on a recent race time. I got the concept from Daniels’ Running Formula, a great book by Jack Daniels (the running coach, not the whiskey distiller). I highly recommend it. Anyway, the change in VDOT level is largely ceremonial since I’ve been (unintentionally) running a lot of my easy runs slightly faster than 9:27/mi anyway. For now, the tempo, interval, marathon and repeat paces don’t really come into play since I’m in a base building phase. My 24 week half marathon program (for the Walt Disney World Half) doesn’t start until the end of this month, so it’s pretty much all easy runs for a few more weeks.

I’ve been slacking a lot lately on my blogging, but I’ve definitely kept up on my running. In fact, I hit nine days in a row today - anew record for me. I’ve been averaging around 23 miles per week over 5 workouts for the last 3 weeks, so I’m going to try to up my mileage by 5 miles this week. It should be pretty easy to hit since I’ve been running 2 miles every other evening with my 11 year old daughter. She’s starting cross country in the fall.

So, that means two runs a day on some days, but 2 miles at roughly 12 minute mile pace is pretty easy for me. It actually helps clear some of the stiffness from the morning run. I am feeling a little discomfort in my right knee when I’m not running, so I’ll have to stay attuned to that. I’ll probably give myself the 4th of July off.

My “official” 24 week half marathon program starts in the end of July. The first few weeks aren’t too much different than what I’m doing now, though. It’s mostly moderate distance easy runs to build up a base. My legs are kind of longing for some speedier runs right now, but I’m sure when I get to the tempo and interval workouts, I’ll be wishing for the easy runs again.

I’m pretty much through the Jack Daniels running book and I’m beginning to work out the periodization plan tha twill take me through the summer, the Race for the Taste 10K and ultimately the Walt Disney World Half Marathon. My pacing for the various types of runs is based on my most recent 5K time of 22:42. Through the tables in the Daniels book, I’ve determined my “easy” pace to be 9:37/mile.

So, I set out on the treadmill at 9:31 pace today. That was as close as I could get on the treadmill without going over. Since the pace is quite a bit slower than I’m used to, I concentrated shortening my stride while maintaining a relatively high cadence. On Wednesday, I was consistently at about 160 footfalls per minute, but today, I was able to maintain a pretty consistent 172 footfalls per minute. My stride length was so short that I felt a little like I was speedwalking. I suppose this will payoff further down the line when I increase my target paces.

Today’s 4 miles were certainly easy and it was refreshing to be able to focus on mechanics a little bit without having to worry about being out of breath, etc.

Actual workout

4 miles at 9:31 pace

5 minutes cool down

Full body strength training

I headed out today with the intent on doing a fairly fast fartlek. I tried to relax during the first mile and pulled it off at around 8:30. Then, I accelerated for my first fartlek (shorter than last week’s but just as fast). This set a good tone and I felt like I was exerting myself, but always recovered enough to give another short acceleration a go. I completed five miles in 41:15. I could have hit 41 flat, but for some heavy traffic at my final street crossing.

Actual workout

8 minutes warmup

5 miles at 8:15 pace

10 minutes cool down

I”m late posting this, so I’m keeping it short and sweet. I did 20 minutes on the stationary bike at 23.1 MPH, and then a very nice full body workout. I even knocked out 2 sets of the decline press at 200 lbs….fairly nice considering I only weigh 140 lbs.

Today, I hit the bike for a solid 20 minutes and then went down to the weights and put in about an hour of strength training. It’s been a while since I’ve done that, so I”ll probably be pretty sore in the morning. I focused a little more on my core, adding in side planks and working with the medicine ball doing some incline sit ups.

Actual workout

20 minutes (7.57 miles) stationary bike

Full body strength training

Into my second week, my 3 easy miles started out tough, but I got into a groove and finished strong. Then, I hit the weights for a nice full body workout

Actual workout

5 minutes warmup

3 miles at 8:34 pace

5 minutes cool down