Week two of Cleveland half marathon training came – and went. And it went pretty well! Week three one the other hand (what we’re on now) – not-so-much. Spoiler alert – I came down with some sorta flu on Sunday and haven’t run since. Anyway – more on that next week. Let’s talk about week two:

Monday: On the schedule – 3 miles

Actual run – 4 miles. I know, I should stick to the schedule, but my legs were heavy until about mile 2.5 so I decided to stick it out for another 1.5 miles. Per usual, I tried to do the first 2 miles at 1% incline; and as always, it wasn’t easy. Finished the last 2 miles a little faster and at no incline.

Cooled down with 20 minutes on the elliptical while reading Runners World. I try not to read my subscription unless I’m working out and I have a backlog of issues to catch up to!

Tuesday: On the schedule – 3 mile tempo run

Actual run: 4 miles. Again, a little more than on the schedule but my warmup and cool down took longer. Can I blame it on that? I did a  13 minute warmup (about 6.2 mph and 1% incline), then minutes 14-23 gradually increased the pace (and took out the incline). From minutes 23-27 I attempted a 10k pace (about between 8 min/mile and 8:20 min/mile), then minutes 27-35 I did a cool down with one last sprint in there at the end. Ended with a 5 minute walk. Finished again with 20 minutes on the elliptical.

Wednesday: On the schedule – 3 mile run

Actual workout: 3+1.25=4.25 miles.

I really wanted to run outside on Wednesday. It was a balmy 30 degrees when I woke up but because it had rained/iced the night before I was afraid the roads would be a slick mess. I don’t know if they were, but I played it safe and stayed inside and ran on the dreadmill while watching the news/VH1 (getting my music fix). I did a 1 mile warmup and then 1 mile at 1% incline, then immediately did another 2 with 0% incline and getting a little faster along the way.  Walked the last .25 miles.

Finished with another 20 minute easy elliptical ride. Yes, ride – because it felt like I was just cruising. Kept the resistance low as it was really just a cool down before planks and a few bicep curls.

Thursday: On the schedule: Rest

Actual workout: Elliptical day. As you know, I’m not good at actually resting so I opted to do the elliptical and some weights in the morning.

Friday: on the schedule – 3 mi. pace

Actual workout: 6 miles. I know, I probably didn’t need to run double what I was supposed to, but it kind of just happened. I had baked (and I guess eaten) quite a few cookies Thursday night and woke up Friday with a ton of energy even though I didn’t get much sleep. So I decided to play it out. I told myself I didn’t know if we’d have time to run on Saturday so if I was able to do a 6 mile run on Friday, then perfect. No guilt on Saturday. I did 1 mile on the treadmill as a warmup with 1% incline (but not at “pace”) and then the next few miles was able to bring my speed down to 9:06 and then just under 9 min miles. I ended up having enough time to finish a 6 mile workout and it felt pretty good.

Saturday: on the schedule – 6 miles

Actual workout: 6 miles, slow and easy but OUTSIDE! Yes, that’s right, B and I ran outside on Saturday morning. B’s sister Mary had a friend in town and she is training for the Cincinnati half marathon and had to run 6, so we met up with them in the morning and ran around outside. The first 2 were a little rough – some of the sidewalks weren’t quite clear and some were icy, but they got better as we went along. IT WAS SO GREAT BEING OUTSIDE!

Sunday: on the schedule – REST.

Actual run: Nothing. I woke up feeling awful, with an achy body and fever. I literally didn’t get off the couch for most of the day. The weather was sunny and about 40 degrees – so much better than it had been the past few weeks – and I was dying to get outside, but I felt lousy and instead spent most of the day sleeping. I rarely get a day with fewer than 12,000 steps (I haven’t since I got the Fitbit in January) but got in a measly 700-something.

And now some fun for this week – I just discovered this from BuzzFeed: How Much Does Running Rule Your Life? Not sure if I’m proud or ashamed, I got this:

Some questions for you:

• Did you take the quiz above? What did you get?
• Did you get outside for a run this week?

Disclosure/Reminder: I’m excited to be a Cleveland Marathon Ambassador. I will be blogging about my training experiences, etc. and will have free race entry. I’ll also be given a free entry to give away to one of you – stay tuned!