GCM Owens Corning Half Marathon Training Week 2

Sunday 2/15

     Mandy and I headed to Texas Roadhouse around 11:30 for an early lunch and to beat the church crowd before running some errands for the day.  Normally Sunday is a rest day, but because of the way things went down on Saturday with the weather and the hours of the gym versus my work schedule, I took my rest day on Saturday and did my Saturday workout today.  I had one mile warm up at a 10:00-10:30 pace followed up by 20 minutes of a tempo run at a 9:30 pace and a one mile cool down back at the 10:00-10:30 pace.  I decided to run it on the treadmill at the gym so I could keep a close eye on my tempo.  I was so worried that I would get a cramp or end up throwing up do to eating a huge lunch just three and a half hours before, but the run went well with no issues and no knee pain.  Once I finished I had enough time to get my therapy strengthening exercises done be for they gym closed up for the day.  

Monday 2/16

     This morning I had a 3 mile maintenance run at goal race pace of 8:45-9:00 per mile and get 20 minutes of cross training done.  When I have to use the gym for my workouts I am pretty limited on time so I wasn't going to be able to get workouts entirely done so I chose to get the run in and if there was time left do some cross training.  I was having issues this morning maintaining my cadence and my pace.  I started out listening to music and I just couldn't get my pace and cadence to settle into a nice rhythm so around 3/4 of a mile I shut off the music and turned on my metronome app to get my cadence back on track.  Once that smoothed out my pace, for the most part, just kind of fell into line.  I finished with about 10 minutes to spare, but not enough time to get settled in on a stationary bike or elliptical, so I shot a few hoops on the basketball court.  Not much of a work out, but it was something.

Tuesday 2/17

     I was feeling really tired last night when I went to bed so I decided to let myself sleep in a little.  To tell you the truth that extra ten minutes of sleep, yes I said 10 minutes, was so worth it or I just got a really good night's sleep.  Anyway, I woke up with a little bounce in my step and headed to the gym to get 30 minutes of cross training done.  This is the one part of the new training plan I really don't like, only because I feel like a hamster on a wheel when I used the machines, but if it helps keep me running pain free I'll suck it up.  Today I hopped on the stationary bike to grind out 30 minutes of my life before I got my rehab strengthening exercises out of the way.  I have to say my legs felt like jello after doing pistol squats and side plank leg lifts after 30 minutes on the bike.

     Ok yoga didn't happen again last night.  I got home from work, ate dinner and watched one of my favorite show and by that time I just felt exhausted and wanted to go to bed.  It was only 9:30, what the hell?

Wednesday 2/18

     Today being my day off, I decided to sleep in a little bit and had Mandy wake me up when she left for work around 7am.  I ate a small amount of cereal to get something in my belly and decided to do my yoga that I should have done last night.  Once I finished yoga I got ready and headed to the gym to put in 6 miles on the old dreadmill.  I hate running on the dreadmill, let alone doing a long run so I took my iPad to watch something to help pass the time.  Overall the run went pretty well for me.  I didn't have any pain or stiffness to speak of for the duration, except for one quick moment I thought pain was about to set in, but it did not. 

     One of the big things I have been working on is my cadence.  Hitting 180 steps per minute has been pretty easy when I have a metronome going in my headset, but I can't deal with that forever.  I really want to bring my music back into the fold, but I quickly change my cadence to match the beat of each song that would come on.  If I can't figure this out I might be sunk. 

Thursday 2/19

     Much to the dismay of my therapist, I skipped my workouts today.  I woke up this morning and just couldn't do it.  My hamstrings and thighs were quite fatigued and I just felt like some rest would do me some good.  After talking to my therapist, the run she had scheduled for me was designed to aid in my recovery, so in other words, don't skip a workout. :)

Friday 2/20

     Intervals were on the menu this morning.  The legs were still tired, but I gave it a go anyways.  I was having problems keeping my cadence at 180 steps per minute when I was running my fast pace.  I kept wanting to speed up my cadence and I even hit 192 spm at one point.  Once I figured out that I needed to lengthen my stride and push off a little harder I got back on track and felt pretty good for the remainder.  

Saturday 2/21

     Today's tempo run was canceled due to the fact it was snowing when I got up and because the gym opens 2 hours later than it does during the week I was unable to get the run in before work.  So why not after, well because of all the snow and it was getting dark by the time I got home from work there was no way it was gonna get done.  Again I switched up my rest day tomorrow with today.