Skidaway Island half marathon training: Week 8 (3/16-3/22)

This week was a bit better than the previous two weeks. While I still only got three runs in (hey, stomach bug!) and my mileage was about five miles lower than I hoped it would be for the week, I did get in a 12-miler.

So far, I've run four runs over 10 miles in this training cycle and this coming weekend, I'll get in one more, bringing my total to five 10-plus milers. That's a first for any half marathon training I've done (I've only ever done two of those higher mileage runs), so I'm hoping I'll see the payoff there.

In general, despite not doing a ton of speedwork, I think the quality of my running workouts is better overall this time around. I've managed to run some hills, both on regular long runs and in hill repeats, and my regular weekday runs are longer on average - up from 3-4 miles to 5-6 miles. I've already seen some speed gains on those regular old runs (and 5K race PR) because of this.

Unfortunately, on my 12-miler this week, I noticed that my shoes are starting to wear out, which is is somewhat baffling because they're pretty new and only have about 150 miles on them. I wear Brooks PureFlow and usually get at least 200-250 miles per pair. They do tend to wear out faster than other shoes because they're more minimal, but wearing out at only 150 miles? Ridiculous.

I wear the PureFlow 4, so maybe it's something in the new design that caused this faster wear out, but they are most definitely not okay for me to run a half marathon in at this point. Fortunately, there's also no break-in time (for me) associated with the Brooks Pure Project line, so getting new shoes two weeks out from a goal race isn't a huge deal. Just an annoying and pricey one. Whoever said that running was a cheap hobby clearly wasn't a runner.

Health-wise, I'm mostly on the mend now. I did have a sick baby and I got a touch of his illness (the aforementioned stomach bug), so instead of running Sunday or even doing a strength/core workout, I just took a rest day. Little B is feeling much better and I'm back to feeling mostly normal as well. This stomach bug wasn't nearly as bad as the one that hit me (and him) during Charleston half training - that was awful and I missed a lot more runs, including long ones, because of it. As of today, my stomach is still a little cranky and my appetite is just a little out of whack, but I should be fine in a day or two. Hopefully, that gets the illnesses out of the way for this round of training and I'll be feeling good on race day.

Speaking of race day, I'm still not 100% sure of what my goals for the race are. I know I'm out for a PR, but how much of one is still unclear (5 minutes? 10 minutes?). I'm keeping an eye on the weather because if it ends up as a hot, humid day, which is a definite possibility, I'll need to readjust my expectations. I'll post those goals next week once I see a weather report because that's the main thing that could change the goals I'm currently thinking of. The training is in the bag at this point and next week really isn't going to make much a difference in my overall outcomes.

In summary (too long, didn't read):

The week in workouts: