Paradise Coast (Naples) Half Training Week 13

Saturday morning sunrise

Welcome to another Weekly Review linkup with Hoho Runs and MissSippiPiddlin. My training cycle focuses on the Paradise Coast Half Marathon on Feburary 14. You can read about the race here. 

Week of Jan 25-31

Monday: 5 miles, treadmill, 9:20/mi
Tuesday: 3 miles, 9:08/mi
Wednesday: 5 miles, 8 x 300m hill repeats
Thursday: 1 mile, 7:58
Friday: 2.6 miles, 8:56/mi
Saturday: 12.1 miles, 10:26/mi
Sunday: 5 miles, 9:06/mi

Weekly total: 33.7 miles
This cycle: 314.5 miles
Streak day: 92

First off, I had my highest milage month ever!! January = 126.66 miles

Right before my phone died on Wednesday

We were still in Chicago on Monday and I opted for treadmill miles. The gym at our preferred hotel is hot-hot-hot (71°) so I figured it would be good "warm weather" practice. It was tough. I'm not very quick on treadmills and I started to overheat, so I slowed down around mile 3 for a walk and water break. Luckily, the Property Brothers kept me mostly distracted.

Tuesday's run was uneventful and slower than normal.

I followed my interval plan Wednesday and did 8x300m hill repeats in the middle of my 5 miler. I chose one of the biggest hills in the area and took breaks at the bottom when I needed them. Phew. It kicked my butt, but I did it! Unfortunately, it was so cold my phone died when I took it out of my pocket to take a photo. Bummer because I was listening to an audiobook.

Thursday was a quick-ish mile with Alex. My legs were tired from the hill workout, so I'm pretty surprised we went sub-8. I meant to run before work Friday, but slept terribly so I went before sunset. It was my worst run of the week. I was tired and stopped at 2.6 instead of finishing the full 3.

Paying tribute to the late Afroduck (the article has some great photos).

Saturday was 12 with my training group. The fulls had 10 miles and I was able to get the remaining 2 with a running buddy. I felt pretty meh about the whole thing at the beginning, plus we had to dodge so much ice. My group takes water breaks every 2 miles and there were a few busy road crossings, so by the time we hit the turn around I felt like we'd stopped way too many times. I looked at my Garmin after and we had a total of 10 stops (!!) which equated to almost 12 minutes of dead time. My legs would get super tight during those stops (it was cold). On the plus side, when the fulls split from the halves we took a few less breaks and did a fun tour of the Ohio State campus, including the Afroduck stop above. We also picked up the pace. My group is 10:45 and I don't think a single mile of my run hit the correct pace. I guess we were all in a hurry.

A new bridge along the route

Mid watch restart. Shorts weather!

Sunday is normally a mile recovery day, but the weather was amazing (61°) so we had to take advantage of it. After seeing The Revenant in the morning, Alex grabbed his bike and escorted me along a section of the Alum Creek Trail. The trail used to be a bunch of disjointed sections, but a few connector bridges were finished earlier this year. It was a lovely trail, but I'm glad I had an escort. We saw at least 5 dudes that were totalllllly high just chilling along the path and enjoying nature. Back to the run: My legs were tired from 12 on Saturday and I took a few breaks for bridge photos, but overall I felt pretty strong. I tried to pretend the last 2 miles were the end of a race and my last mile was my fastest!

This was my last long week before Paradise Coast. Normally I feel relief when I hit taper, but this time I'm thinking those crazy thoughts I've seen other bloggers mention: "Well, maybe I need more speed work. Am I fast enough?!" "One more long run would make me feel more prepared!" etc. But I know deep down taper's here for a reason and I'll make it to the finish line. The potential humidity and heat still freak me out (OMG it was 70° with 80% humidity at 7am today!), but if I just keep running I'll be ok.

How was your week?
What's your goal for February? (Mine: make it through race day without melting.)