Training Update: Hospital Hill Half training, with a little slacking off

Last week kicked off my training for the Hospital Hill Half Marathon. As you know, I have some lofty goals, so training has been kicked up a notch. However, I’ve already slacked off a bit and skipped my long run (Boooo…) because my mom was in town. I figured that was a good reason to skip, and well, one skipped work out isn’t going to kill me.

Monday: Rest Day

Tuesday: 4.8 miles at 8:33 min/mi overall pace (tempo run) + hot yoga
This was an awesome run… like the reason I run is to go out and feel like I did this day. I started off at an 8:58 pace for my warm up and shaved off a few seconds each mile until I was at a 7:27 pace for the last 0.8 of a mile. I felt like I could go forever. It didn’t hurt that I saw one of my committee members while I was out running and totally flew by him twice (I lapped him on the loop I do). Let’s hope that I feel like this for Hospital Hill.

Wednesday: 4 miles at 9:19 min/mi overall pace (recovery run) + yoga
This was a pretty chill recovery run that I did with my running group. We kept it slow and steady. I kept having to pull myself back a bit but I wanted to keep it chill.

Thursday: 4 miles – hill repeats with warm up and cool down + hot yoga
As far as runs go, this one was brutal. It was hot out, I was tired, and somehow my 40-foot hill seemed like Everest. I did a 10 minute warm up, and then 8 times up the hill at an all out pace and then back down at a VERY slow pace. I felt good during my warm up, but I tired out fast. I guess I need to do more hills. I was a bit discouraged after this run, since Hospital Hill has some pretty intense hills that I’m going to have to tackle and I need to be a little more with it than I was for this work out.

Friday: Rest + Picked up my mom from the airport

Saturday: 4.5 miles at 9:05 min/mi overall pace (foundation run) + yoga + hike
I had a pretty bad headache the whole time and kept it pretty slow. I think I hadn’t drank enough water before and it was the first really hot day out. I spent the rest of the day hanging with my mom.

Sunday: Unintentional rest day + hot yoga
I was supposed to do 9 miles. Oh well. I don’t get to see my mom all that often, so I figured I had a good excuse. J

Total Mileage: 17.3 – pretty sad given I was supposed to do around 26. Oh well.

This week will be a bit more intense, and if I’m feeling any aches or pain, I might go ahead and skip a workout so that I don’t up my mileage too quick.

M: Rest
T: Speed work
W: Recovery
T: Foundation run
F: Long run (14 miles… ugh!)
S: rest
S: tempo run

I’ll probably be pretty tired by the end of the week, but that’s ok. I’m feeling strong and ready to kick some butt. And… by the way, it’s snowing right now.

How do you feel about skipping workouts? Are there any occasions (besides injury) that call for a skip?