Progress!!

So while this running journal blog is a super helpful tool for me, it struck me that it possibly makes for very dry reading.. :) I might just have to insert a plot twist here and there to make it a more interesting account. Although, I hope not. Steady progression may be quite boring to read (and write) about but in training, rather desirable!

So theres Week 1 of my training. Touchwood, it all went according to plan. My 7K time went from 52 something minutes down to 50 minutes which felt great, so this week I'm aiming to repeat that (shave off those 8 seconds...) The tempo run for the week went well : 6x30s strides. Although, I had to get it done on the treadmill because my morning got away from me and it just became too late (too hot) to run on the road. The long run for the week also went well. I covered about 9.8 km in 75 minutes - 400meters further than last week - and then I just had to run for another minute to round the distance off to a nice neat 10K. :) Also managed to fit in 3 strength sessions, 3 swim sessions and 7 mobility sessions... check, check, check! Overall, good week!

I'll be travelling later this week and so am anticipating some disruptions to the plan. Will hopefully be able to work around it and still get my weekly mileage done..

Full-on Training Mode

 :)

Today I entered full-on training mode. 18 weeks to race day! My training calendar is divided into 4 blocks of 4 weeks each and then a couple of weeks for tapering. As of now, I have a skeletal plan for the whole 18 weeks in place and then as I progress, I will be fleshing it out one block at a time.

Weekly Long Run

Once a week I have me running a long duration run (ideally at an easy pace). Conventionally, training plans will have you running incremental long distances once a week till you build up to about 90% (typically) of the race distance. Typically HM training plans will have you start at 10 or 11K and build up to about 19 or 19.5K by peak week. And week-on-week the distance increment will be about 10% (not more). 

I like to look at my long run from a time-on-feet perspective than distance covered. This (supposedly) reduces chances of injury by reducing the possibility of overtraining. So for the first block my long run is going to be for 75 minutes, then 90 minutes for the next block, then 105 and so on. Consecutive weeks of running a fixed amount of time gets your body & mind used to being on the move for that amount of time and (theoretically) the distance covered in the duration starts to feel easier and easier.

Every 4th week is cutback week where I'll be reducing the time-on-feet and weekly mileage to help the body recover before jumping into the next block of higher training intensity.

Tempo & Interval Runs

Once every other week I'll be doing a Tempo run. Tempo runs are meant to be "comfortably hard". These will be shorter distances at goal pace to get the body used to running at that pace. And every other week I have interval runs scheduled. These are even shorter distances run at a pace faster than goal pace. The idea here is to improve overall running power. I found a 16 week HM training plan on one of my go-to running blogs called Run To The Finish and I've adapted the tempo & interval workouts from there. Have never tried these workouts before so this should be fun!

My weekly 7K runs

I've written about this before - one of my mental hacks to run a Half Marathon is to think of it as a 7Kx3 and then a little bit more rather than 21.1K. Looking at the distance as bite-sized mini chunks makes it seem much more doable. Its true what they say, that long distance running is more of a mental game than a physical one. If I can comfortably run 7K under 43 minutes, then I know that I can run the HM in my goal time of 2hrs and 10 minutes. So I've dedicated Tuesdays to working on my 7K time. Currently that comfortable time is 52 minutes (7'30" pace) I need to work this down to 42 minutes by Week 14 or so and then I'll know that goal time is a definite possibility.

Easy Runs

In addition to these runs, I'll also be throwing in a couple of easy runs during the week probably 30-45 minutes duration to make up the weekly mileage, and to maintain general aerobic fitness. Given my propensity to get injured, and to avoid possibly doing too much, these will most likely be done indoors - flat surface, controlled environment, less impact, lower heart rate and all that.

Swimming & Strength Training

Now that I have regular access to a pool and because I love it, I have scheduled 3 days a week of swimming. Swimming is a great cross training tool anyways and great for recovery. If I feel up to it, it may even be 4 or 5 times a week.

Because its absolutely essential and non-negotiable, and not because I love it, I have scheduled 3 days a week of strength training. In the past, I've not strength trained nearly enough which is one of the top reasons why I have had to go through so many niggling injuries. Of late though, I've found several workout videos (mostly fitness influencer reels on instagram) that are sort-of appealing and I have been trying them out for myself at home. This has had some mediocre success in keeping me interested enough to strength train consistently for at least 20 minutes a day, three times a week for the past few weeks. Hopefully this trend continues.

So thats the whole breakdown of my 18 week training plan. More updates on how I progress with it in the ensuing weeks. 

Base Week 3

The three weeks of "honeymoon" phase of my training plan is now done and I'm somewhat happy with the way things are going. I'm most happy with the fact that a pace of 6'09" feels hard but it doesn't feel that farfetched to think of being able to run the whole 21.1K at that pace 18 weeks down the line. Fingers crossed that my training continues smoothly without any interruptions.

Yesterday's long run of 75 minutes felt torturous (mostly because I was running it on a 300m loop). There was a time when I considered running 10K in 75 minutes to be "easy peasy" - I am barely able to do 9.5K now. Theres lots of scope for improvement. One other worry is that about 60 minutes into the run, I started feeling a familiar niggling pain on the outside of my right knee. Yes, the very same pain that I worked through back in 2023/2024 when I was training for my 20 miler. I took a teeny break, did a couple of stretches and was able to continue with the balance 15 minutes pain-free. This is of significant concern and I'm going to have to be very mindful of this issue flaring up again. Going to continue with my strength training sessions with a special focus on knee strength and prehab exercises to prevent the pain from cropping up again and becoming a serious issue.

Tomorrow is Day 1 of the full-on 18week training plan. As always, more updates to follow..

Base Week 2

Base week 2 did not go as per plan. Early on in the week I felt poorly and thought I was coming down with some flu and decided to go a little easy on the training. Thankfully it did not break out and I didn't get too sick but I did get my periods later on the week which came with some unusually painful cramps which affected my sleep, my energy and my overall will to do anything productive.

So while training did dip, it didn't flatline. I did manage a weekly mileage of 19.1K (instead of the intended 28K) and some other cross training activities however, every single activity was graded as "Strained" by my Garmin including a very mild 20 minute mobility session! I'm not sure if this is some glitch to be ignored or if I should take it seriously and reduce my training load. (I feel fine!) I have 1 more week of my "honeymoon phase" so I am going to stick to my original plan and play it by ear.

Heres to more green ticks for the coming week.

Base Week 1

Week 1 of Base building done and I'm feeling pretty good about it.  

Now, about my goal! Last week I mentioned that I had a goal in mind and that I would set it in stone once I start the training and am able to judge where I stand. After this 1st week of base building, I feel pretty confident about the goal that I've set for myself. At the moment, it does sound a bit lofty but its not impossible or even unrealistic. 

My PB in the half marathon distance is 2hrs 16 minutes something. I set this back in 2018 and I haven't done a half marathon race since. I also don't have any other recent long distance race times to go by. So this goal may seem like I just pulled it out of nowhere and in a sense thats probably true. Given the huge gap between the races, experts may tell me I shouldn't expect to PB in this upcoming race but my rationale is: why not? So I'm aiming for 2:10:00.  :) (But I'll also settle for anything under 2:16:00 just that for training planning, a good, round 2:10:00 works nicely)

There is a significant gap between my current pace (expected finish time for a HM at current levels would be around 2:35:00 I would say) and goal pace. But I didn't say that this plan wouldn't take work. I have 20 weeks to go and I'm willing to put in the time and effort. Or at least try. Plus, a challenge is always more motivating and will keep me on my toes during this training block.

The other day, I was listening to a running podcast (running explained) and the episode was about half marathon training and setting a realistic goal pace (mine's 6'09" to a km btw) and it talked about how the bulk of training should be at easy pace and dedicate maybe 1 run a week to goal-pace work. The body must get used to running longer distances at the goal pace so that its ready for Race day but that doesn't mean that every run should be run at goal pace because that would just lead to exhaustion & burn-out. So every week, schedule in a tempo run of 2miles, 1mile or 1K or 800m repeats at goal pace. It was also mentioned that if you can't run even 800m at your goal pace, then it is probably an unrealistic goal to set. 

So I put that to test on Friday and woohoo... I could run 800m at 6'09" (more or less). It felt hard but I can work on it. Today I ran 60 minutes on ground after a long, long time. Just about covered 7.7 km. Thats a 7'48" pace. These long runs are meant to be easy and I'm not putting any pace pressure on them. I need to feel confident about going long again while remaining strong. (Although, 7'48" pace didn't feel too easy. comfortably hard I would say it was). The problem is that these days, I'm running these long distances on a torturous 300m loop. Round and round and round - 60 minutes felt like forever but I got it done!

So theres Week1 in a snapshot... Lots of green checks. Got to keep this going. 2 more weeks of base training (or as I call it the honeymoon phase / confidence building phase) and then full-on HM training.. :)