Training for Training

My first half marathon in February I finished in just over 2:15 (too lazy to look up the exact time). This was slower than my main goal to bet 2:11 (10 min pace) and even short of my backup goal of 2:15. What's frustrating is a did a 13.1 mile run just a few weeks before and did it faster. Not really sure where I went wrong during the race but I'm pretty sure it was mental. Perhaps I'll try my best to do a race report at some point so I have a record of it before I completely forget it.

Round two. Ashlee and I decided to sign up for the Savannah half marathon in November. I randomly decided that I wanted to break 2:00. Why, I don't know but it seemed like a good goal at the time. I've verbalized the goal to people so now I have to stick with it. Now lets so the math. Sub 2 is a 9:09 pace. I did my first half marathon this year about a minute slower. I mean I know I've been improving but am I crazy? 

Turns out Ashlee decided on the same goal. Let's get one thing straight though, Ashlee is a much better runner than me. She did track in college. Although it was pole vaulting, track is still track. She also did her first half marathon this year and got pretty much the exact same time as me. But! she was on a very hilly course and didn't kill herself on sticking with the training plan. Since we both had the same goal, Ashlee found a training plan for breaking 2 hours. 

I have both a problem with the easy run pace and the speed work paces but for very different reasons. Easy run: 10:30? Are you kidding me? Why, I mean just why? I can't seem to comprehend running the majority of your weekly miles at such a slow pace. Not to mention that I seem to be incapable of running at a slow pace. Ashlee would always joke I had two speeds: fast (fast for me) and walk. Speed work: these range a decent amount depending on if its tempo, intervals, etc but no matter what the workout, I really don't think I can do any of them. 

I still have a few months before I officially transfer from triathlon training to half marathon training. That's a few more months to essentially work up to those harder paces. But even with those few months, I'm still very worried so I decided to do a test run (pun intended). One of the workouts was 1 mile warm up, 3 miles at half marathon pace (9:09), 1 mile cool down. 

Mile 1: 10:12 - warm up, this is a good warm up pace right?
Mile 2: 8:59 - ok time to kick it up. wait you're going to fast. nope this isn't going to happen, I'm going to die.
Mile 3:9:54 - this sucks, no way, let's switch to "intervals"! easy mile, go hard next mile
Mile 4:9:34 - ok this still sucks. nope not going to make it. 0.6 miles in... I give up, slowing down
Mile 5:10:03 - you should just quit, why are you even doing this? because how are you going to run 13.1 miles at 9:09 if you cant even finish this half ass workout? no wait, how are you going to run 6.2 miles after you swam and biked for 2 hours?!? fine I'll finish! but I'm going slow!

Fail. Just plain fail. Average pace 9:44. This is the same pace I did my "easy" run two days prior but my average heart rate was 13bpm higher today. Now I will give myself a tiny bit of credit. I was running on tired legs from the previous two days which consisted of a 4 mile run followed by strength/circuit training for an hour on Monday, 3000m swim Tuesday morning and 30 mile ride in the evening. But still, this wasn't fail by a little, this was fail a lot. 

Soooo based on today I'm not feeling any better about half marathon training. In fact I might be feeling a bit worse. I'm thinking I might need to switch Monday easy run and Wednesday speed work run so my legs aren't as tired for the speed work. Of course that's following my long bike day but I still think it will be better. Either way I have a lot of training to do before my half marathon training starts. Training for training....greeeeat.