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Tempo, Fartlek, Long Run, week 1 is done

The first week of half marathon training is over. It wasn't too intense, but we definitely worked hard. Monday Strava Monday was the tempo run. I did pretty well, running at about 8:06/mile. I recognize that 8:06/mile is a long way off where I would eventually like to be, but I'm happy with it this week. That's the exact pace I ran in the Silicon Valley Turkey Trot in 2014, and that was one of the fastest races I've run (since high school at least). Wednesday Strava I did 6 miles of speed work on Wednesday. Honestly, it was pretty easy as far as speedwork goes. I did 5 fartleks of about 1/4 mile each, with about 3/4 mile of easy jogging in between. It was a kind of easy way to get back into speed work. My pace during the fartleks was around 6:15/mile or a bit slower. Not super slow for me. Not bad for the first speed work of this round of training. In the evening we did strength training. I don't really know what I'm doing here, so I just fo

Utah Valley (Half) Marathon, 2017

This year for my birthday, I'm running a half marathon with my wife. That's actually what I'm asking for. Training starts in about a week and a half. It has been over 2 years since we have seriously trained for a race, so I'm actually looking forward to the speed work and the tempo runs and the rest of it. We're planning on doing strength training for the first time this go 'round. Hopefully we'll see some improvements in our performance, or at least reduction in injuries. Here we go again!

An Unrealistic Goal

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Photo by:  https://www.flickr.com/photos/wallyg/ I have sort of been a runner for a long time. I guess all kids like to run at a certain age, but the world tells us that running isn't fun pretty early in life. So, I didn't really start running in earnest until I joined my high school's cross country team as a junior. No one got cut from the cross country team, and I liked that. So, I ran. Every day after school in the heat of the late Las Vegas summer, I put on a cotton shirt (I don't even know if tech tees existed back then), and I ran, then walked, then staggered, then ran some more. Eventually I just ran. I was slow, at least by cross country team standards. I pretty much had one goal in high school cross country: don't be last in a race. I was never last! I came really close in a few races, though. I think I was second to last more than once. But I was never last. When I graduated, I swore I would never run more than a few miles again. I think th