Half Marathon Training Week 13

I am in my final 4 week training block you guys! The race is literally around the corner! I am so excited! Motel is booked in Keystone and, after getting my race guide, I am literally within walking distance of the shuttle to the start line and from the finish line! I am still extremely bummed that I will be there by myself and no one will be there to cheer for me at the finish line but it's okay. I'll be okay. Let's recap week 13!

THE TRAINING Total Running Time: 3 hours 19 minutes

Total Miles: 13.59 miles

Another week, another heat advisory in effect. This was a 55 minute easy run with focus on easy efforts going down hill. Took this to the treadmill and I alternated between 10 minutes at 4.2 with incline of 3.0 and 5 minutes at 3.0 with incline of 12. The best part of this run? I had just finished slowing my speed and increasing my incline and I accidentally pulled the emergency key. Do you know what the emergency key? Yes...it stops the treadmill immediately AND IT CLEARS THE WORKOUT SCREEN!!!

I may not have forgotten to resume run but this spoke to me!

I was about 25 minutes in which means I was able to pick back up and complete the correct amount of time but I had no idea what my mileage was. I've said it before but when I have speed changes on the treadmill, the mileage between my watch and the treadmill is always off...I may have ran more than 3.53 miles but I have no way of knowing!

I also finished my Yellowstone 150 Mile Challenge! I can't wait to show y'all my coins!

Hills...let's talk about hills. I have some really dumb hills in my area but I'll get to that in a minute with my next run. The focus on this run was 6 sets of 45 second hill runs. If I ran outside the goal would have been to start at the base of the hill, run up the hill for 45 seconds, note or mark where you finished, go back down the hill and repeat for a total of 6 times. Again...heat advisory was in place so treadmill run it was. Here's a picture of my speeds, inclines, and times for this run.

In this 29 minutes and slower speeds for the "downhill", I managed to knock out 2.02 miles. I actually had a lot of fun with this one but decided that I would increase the incline on the next hill session.

I had zero energy to take a picture outside before I got home. This was my long run and I actually ran it on Saturday per the schedule! I was so proud of myself for this! I calculated out my route and it came out to around 8.5 miles and my goal was to hit 8 miles and have a recovery walk of a half mile. The route I ran I knew there were going to be hills so I knew that I would get to do that 2-3 miles of downhill course focus...even if it was technically split up. I didn't realize exactly how steep the hills were and the number of times I wanted to cry when I saw the hills...I just can't! What goes up, must come down...but my God the hills! Around mile 5 I had to pause because I got a tiny pebble in my shoe. My legs felt like jello and concrete at the same time. Remember last week's recap when I mentioned the cramp in the top of my left butt cheek? Well that sucker came back around mile 6 but it wasn't too bad so I kept going. I told myself I can get to the stop sign at the top of the hill about 0.75 miles from home by 1h55m. Then I told myself F**k that! I can get to the bottom of the hill and to the stop sign at the end of our main road. That was the final goal. I get to the bottom of the hill and I can see the stop sign! I have a little over a minute before I'm done so I slow down and start walking. Then I realize I am at 7.95 miles as I'm about to cross the street with one minute left. I pull a race move and I pick up the speed and I haul ass until I hear my run tracker call out 8 miles and then I get to stop at 1h 55m for a total of 8.04 miles! I skipped my recovery run on Sunday because that cramp was still in my butt.

EXTRAS

I have continued to fail at sharing meals or dishes that I've made but I did do some recipe testing and created a few recipes. One came out today and the others will be coming out in the next couple weeks! I decided to share some of the memes that I found after my long run on Saturday.

I would cross out "Low Humidity" and have it read "A Cool Breeze", "A Cool Breeze In The Shade", and "A Cool Breeze, In The Shade, Going Down Hill"!

If only I had seen this that one day that I ran in the extreme heat advisory.

I have nothing else to add here.

This is also my rating system for hills. Hills either get an OMG, a WTF, or both.

I also used my long run to complete my National Park Adventures Grand Canyon 10K Virtual Run from VirtualRun.com. I forgot to check the time when I completed this but it was about 1h 28min.