Marathon Training - Half Marathon

Been a little bit since I touched on this topic. Yet it is still going. Training in the summer was hard. It really was. Hot, humid and a lot of chafing. Sometimes temporary injuries. Treadmill at the gym fairly often over the summer and finally some run intervals. Yet in late August I found and officially joined a training group to help with accountability. I remember the second training session I did with them was on Labor Day. The first session was six miles and I walked due to doing six the day before on the treadmill. Labor day  we had four miles we were doing. Yet the last mile and half I struggled. I couldn't keep my intervals of 2/2 (Run two minutes, walk two) and the last mile I walked. Treadmill most of the summer and also the heat/humidity walloped me. The mental game I realized would be my biggest roadblock in all of this. Hello past posts on here about training! Yet they too welcomed me with open arms and encouraged me to keep going. Another point I wound up with an injury and walked the long run. Yet even then I was encouraged. None of the "not doing good enough" stuff. Two women in particular carried a lot of wisdom, encouragement and "mother hen" to our group. One especially was quite the momma hen towards me. You two know who you are. Our local running store, the owner there has been a huge help to our group as well. I loved being able to go to her and ask questions yet hear her experiences, thoughts, opinions and honesty throughout this journey too.

Never once the "good enough" game, and even when I started hounding myself for not doing good enough, I was often reminded that it all really didn't matter that we were out there at the crack of dawn and doing what many would not.

Recently with the help of our local Ainsley's Angels ambassador, three local families got their own Freedom Chair through another local organization. My son was one of them. It makes training easier when he is out of school, and it proved even handy at his recent MRI where I could push him around after his sedation and it's easy to clean up if there is any nausea, which thankfully we didn't have.... The 5k the next day I pushed him in and hung back because I had done a 10 miler the day before, I didn't want to overdo it. It really was inspiring seeing so many overcome what otherwise life would say "no way you can do that" towards. Even an Olympic paracyclist!

Our local FCA runners group has been amazing through my journey on this also. So many encouraging each other, cheering each other on, first or last to finish. My longest run with them was 10 miles. I did a 10 miler twice with a 2/1 interval as part of combining their and my marathon training plans. I finished both in a little over two hours. (Not including the phone call I had to handle during the second session the following week.)Yeah, in that time I went from a 2/2 interval to a 2/1 pretty consistently!

The week of the half-marathon I hit our local trail loop again for the first time since May. The fall foliage was lovely to see. Yet I conquered that six miles AND going even to the top of the main hill for the first time in an hour and twenty minutes. Just barely over a 10k distance. Going a little under that distance (Didn't do the very top of the hill till last week, just out from the trail) the last time I did took me an hour and forty five minutes to do one lap back in May. Adding in almost a mile and more incline in the middle of it and I still shaved off over twenty minutes.

I should have taken the next two days off since I had the half-marathon coming up. I didn't though. I have been a stickler about sticking to the marathon plan so I did three miles the Thursday before as speedwork and I did definitely do the speed, I also triggered something in my left hip abductor where the nerve was hating me soon after.

via GIPHY

Yeah, so I kinda overdid that I think. I really started worrying about making the half-marathon let alone finishing it. 

I posted this the day before when I went to get my packet.

The day of the half marathon I was nervous... Yet excited. Yet hoping that the pain I had been having in my leg for a couple of days would hold up. I did my best to keep the faith up.

I set out my stuff the night before knowing I would be up early but also the chance of forgetting something was not something I wanted.

Those were two pics I got during the race. You couldn't have asked for better weather! I pretty much hung back till the last two miles due to trying to keep my injury from flaring up bad enough I couldn't finish. I also enjoyed the company of the one I was strolling along with. We kept each other going.

Yet I finished!!

We finished!!

I was definitely not in the top half but I totally finished! If not for the injury I could have done closer to the 2:30 time frame I think but I still finished! The injury really started talking as soon as I stopped, despite stretching.

I told one of the leaders of our FCA group that it had been a huge honor to get to do that with them, and that as much as I was hard on myself during the training, I was really going to miss the company, especially as my long runs continue to get ready for the marathon in March. Yet I'm already halfway there with this much time to go. The encouragement of finishing a half is a huge boost.

I may have been off all this week to recover the injury but this next week I'm ready to come back and I'm hopefully going to keep going on all of this. Ainsley's Angels and more.

I am thankful for the FCA group though as they gave me the encouragement I needed to keep going and to prove we all could accomplish this. And that we did. It will be a half-marathon I will be doing again. I can't wait till we start back up again officially either. God willing, I will persevere on this journey, no matter where it takes me, chariot pushing included.

~ Special Momma ~