Background
Saturday 3/24/2018 I ran the Tomoka Half Marathon in Ormond Beach, FL. I know I said before that I would never run anything more than a 5k, but this was different. You see I initially signed up for the Tomoka 5k a while back but with all my training changes I didn't think it was a good idea to race at this time. Thankfully I was able to switch to the Tomoka Half Marathon instead. I decided to use this as my long running day and not compete or push myself. So, just run at a reasonable pace and have fun. I decided the conservative time of 1:50-2:00 hours would be a good, safe pace. 

The half marathon started at 6:30 am on Saturday. It was still dark outside when they lined all of us up. I was not nervous at all for this race since I wasn't competing just there to have fun at a new route. 

Mile 1
The first mile was through a residential street and with 700+ runners things got pretty backed up. This worked out to my advantage because it really forced me to run a slow first mile. I started out in the middle/back for that reason.  

Miles 2-3
Mile 2 was the Granada Bridge mile. Things were still a good bit backed up here. I made sure to take advantage of  the many water stops throughout the course. All of the volunteers here were very helpful and friendly. I give them a lot of credit for being so cheerful for hours and hours. 

Miles 4-5
After the bridge, we started down Beach Street headed towards Tomoka State Park.  The sun finally started to rise at this point too which woke me up. At this point, I moved away from the 2 hour group and ran on my own. 

Miles 6-8
We entered the beautiful Tomoka State Park and headed on a hard packed, dirt road. We were greeted at the entrance by a fabulous group of highly energetic volunteers handing us waters and gels. I do love trail running and thought this was the most beautiful part of the run. The turnaround point was the halfway marker (I think). We then exited the park and passed the same group of volunteers for the water stop. I took my gel around mile 7 which gave me some more energy. 

Miles 9-11
We headed back on Beach Street towards the bridge again for this section. We made a turn down a residential street and it was pretty straight forward. 

Miles 12- 13.1
It was back over the Granada Bridge around mile 12. At this point, I had so much energy for from holding back so much that I just picked up my pace. This wasn't planned or anything I just went with what I was feeling at the time. We crossed the bridge then ran under it and finished back by the Casements. I finished right at the time I needed to and felt great! 

Final Thoughts
This was such a great race. Not only was it scenic and very well organized, but it was so nice to just run for fun and not worry about a time or a PR. I felt so great at the end with so much energy left. These high mileage runs are becoming my favorite workout. 

The Swag
This medal is even bigger in person! 

  ⇡  Here are my splits ⇡ 
​
Results
Time: 1:51:38
Pace: 8:31
Overall: 117 out of 728
Female 30-34:  9th out of 54

Week 2 of the training plan is going pretty well if I do say so myself. ​I put on 52 miles last week and everything felt pretty good all in all. Prior to this the most I had ever run in a week is probably 35 miles or so. 

Sunday
Speed-work 400 M with warm up cool/downs for a total of  9 miles

This felt pretty good overall. I like the intensity of the speed-work and how it increases mileage at the same time. 

Monday
Easy 6

Tuesday
7 mile tempo work

Wednesday 
Easy 6

Thursday
Easy 6 with strides at the end

Friday
12 miles

This run felt pretty easy. I am getting to the point where I wake up on Fridays and look forward to it. 

Saturday
Easy 6

Next week will be pretty similar in workouts and paces and I also will be running in the Tomoka Half Marathon (my first half) so I look forward to that. 

Weekly Mileage Total: 
52

This was my first week training with my Hanson's Marathon Method Plan and here's how it went. 

Monday
Speed Intervals 7 Miles total
Warm up/cool down with 400M workouts for a total of 7 miles. 

I calculated my pace for speed work and turns out I was going too fast before. This speed work was not as devastating to my body but made up for it with mileage. 

Tuesday 
6 mile Easy Run
No surprise here that my easy run pace was also too fast. It was nice to be able to run at a comfortable pace. 

Wednesday 
7 Mile Tempo Work

Thursday
Easy 6 with strides at the end. 
I like the idea of incorporating some short, fast speed work in the end of a longer run. 

Friday 
12 Mile Run
Confession: The furthest I've ever run before is only 7 miles. This 12 miler actually felt good and it was at a nice, comfortable pace as well. This became one of my favorite workouts of the week. 

Saturday
5k Run
This was not recommended I know, but I am still glad I did it. 

This was a very successful week of training. I tweaked the days for next week and am anxious to see how this will look moving forward. 

Total miles for week:
41

Background
Saturday 3/10/18 was the Light the Night 5k in New Smyrna Beach, FL. There's just something about a night race! The lights, the excitement, and just the different way it feels makes me so happy. I look forward to this race all year. 

Pre-Race Goals
As you remember, I just started my Hanson's Marathon Method plan just last week and racing is not advised this early in training. I did not want to jeopardize my progress but there was also no way I was going to miss one of my favorite events, so I decided to run conservatively and not push myself no matter what. This would also help me practice not going all out in every race. I can run conservatively...right? 

Mile 1  6:24
​I never checked my watch during the race, so I honestly had no idea how fast/slow I was going. I started with what seemed to be slow pace. I was pretty far behind the leaders right from the start (turns out there were just really fast). This mile felt easy and comfortable at the same time. 

Mile 2  6:44
Once again, I thought I was running pretty slow at this point. The leaders were all way ahead of me, and I didn't see anyone close behind. I felt pretty good at the turnaround and knew I could keep up my pace. Saturday was overcast so it made for a darker race than last year (which was really neat). 

Mile 3  6:52
After the 2nd mile watch beep, the rest of the race seemed to go by pretty quickly. I guess that's all thanks to running longer distances. It was nice to not feel like dying during the last mile for once. 

Mile .10  6:15
When I was finally able to see the clock, I only had less than .05 miles to go or so. Based on my perceived pace I completely expected it to say something like 22-23 minutes. I was beyond shocked to see it read just under 21 minutes. I'm pretty sure I could of sprinted to get under 21 minutes but I was too surprised haha. My time was just over 21 minutes, but the best part was I didn't struggle at all during the race. I promise I did actually hold back. 

Final Thoughts
Once again, I was so surprised/elated to have an easy race. I've been struggling so much recently and my times have been getting worse and worse. I finally ran a race at a comfortable pace and actually had a decent time. This just proves that my training plan is really working. Just a week in and I see improvements, I cannot wait to see what happens next. 

↓  Swag  ↓

For those following my training, you've probably noticed I've hit a wall and cannot get any faster. Well after an extremely disappointing race last weekend (so bad I can't even bring myself to write the recap about it) I have decided to change things up. I've been doing research and all signs have pointed to over-training. At first I didn't think this was even a possibility because of the low mileage I was putting on (never over 35 miles a week), but the truth is you can over train at any mileage. It's all about the intensity of the workouts and how long you are giving yourself to recover that matters. 

I was putting way too many 5k pace workouts and speed sessions together in a week and training at a pace that I could not ever fully recover from. Basically all the mileage I was putting on was essentially useless (which hurts to hear because of how hard it all was to complete haha). 

I began to research 5k specific running plans and decided the perfect one for me was the Hanson's Marathon Method 5k advanced training. For those who are not familiar with Hanson's it's basically putting on a ton of mileage a week (mine will average about 50-60 miles a week with no days off and my long run will be 12-16 miles) which trains your body to run with cumulative fatigue. I've build up a base for putting on mileage so I feel positive I can do this. You can view a sample week from my schedule here. 

It's important to stress this is different from over-training because most  runs are at a easy pace even though they are much longer. I welcome these longer runs because it's a manageable challenge for me. I will continue to post updates with my progress. Let's go!