Hi everyone! We have 14 weeks until the Walt Disney World Marathon weekend! GAH! In preparation for the marathon, I decided to run a half marathon roughly halfway in our training schedule. So next week is the B.A.A. Half Marathon, the final event in the B.A.A. Distance Medley! I ran the 5K in April and the 10K in June and I’m looking forward to rounding out the events with a half. It’ll be my fourth half marathon! Here’s what my training week looked like:

Training Update: Week 11 Half Marathon Training

The cough I was fighting last weekend ended up being more intense than I expected. I still think it’s allergies but maybe it turned into an infection? I’m not sure. But it made me sit out my first two days of training. Urgh.

Monday: Rest. And lots of cough medicine. We had multiple events going on at work and I was very busy, but thought I could make a 7:25PM strength training class at MyStryde. By 4PM I knew that wasn’t going to happen so I called to cancel. I was so sad to miss my MyStyde class but knew I had made the right call.

Shots, anyone?

Tuesday: More rest. And more cough medicine.

Wednesday: 4 miles. I was finally feeling better and was definitely frustrated with my lack of training. After work I went to a MyStryde Endurance class with instructor Erin. I hit 10.5 in my final sprint! I was feeling energized and uplifted. Thank you, Erin!

Thursday: 5 miles. Riding the high of yesterday’s class, I committed to an after work run. Around mile 2 I felt exhausted, and was hacking the entire time, but rather than give up I thankfully had a jolly rancher in my Nathan pack. That little jolly rancher lifted my spirits and helped me through the next two miles. It’s the little things!

This was me. If anyone’s seen Paul Blart : Mall Cop, there’s a scene where, in desperation, he eats a dirty lollipop off the ground to get his sugar levels up and kick bad guy butt!

Friday: 2 miles + strength. My weekly barre class was excellent. We practiced moves that I find very challenging (hello pretzel). I was still feeling off so my form wasn’t great but practice makes perfect! Tommy discovered there is a Five Guys around the corner from the studio and begged me to bring home takeout. Burgers and fries for a carbo load! I’d never had Five Guys before and was not disappointed.

Saturday: 13 miles. I wanted to get a 13 miler in before next week’s race. From here on out, every Saturday morning is going to be a long, long run until taper time! I told myself to take it easy, keep the pace consistent, and enjoy the scenery. Well, every two miles it was either pouring or windy. It was quite the adventure!

Angry, beautiful sky

I finished around 9:30AM and went right home to shower (even though it had felt like I was showering for two hours.) I had heard of the health benefits of throwing your legs up against a wall, but wanted to try it out for myself.

Looking so glamorous

Let me tell you, it was amazing. I set my timer for 10 minutes and I let the wall do all the work. For the rest of the day my legs felt GREAT. I will be doing this every week after my long runs!

Tommy and I had our date night last night kicking things off with watching THE VVITCH, with the pefect chilly overcast weather, drinks at our favorite bar, followed by dinner at our local hipster-y Italian restaurant. Perfection!

Sunday: Rest (hah! More like, catch up on errands/cleaning). This week called for 25.5 miles, and for my last 1.5, I am planning on walking to the grocery store, cleaning the house and doing laundry. My legs are still feeling great and I’m looking forward to “tapering” this week and picking up my bib at Boston’s RunBase on Thursday!

Total Weekly Mileage: 24-ish
Health: still coughing but getting better

Time to taper. In the meantime, I have to commit to a marathon training plan! What training plan are you using to train for the Walt Disney World Marathon?

Until next time,
Gina/Will Run for Disney