United NYC Half Marathon training recap and goal

Hey there!

It certainly has been some time since I updated this little thing on my training but I head to New York in just a day and figured I should turn on this rusty old computer.  When I first started training for the UnitedNYC Half I thought I was update the blog regularly with how my training is going, but honestly, I blame my computer.  My computer is old and slow and a pain to work with.  I need a new one.  I also need a new car, work clothes, a cell phone, to pay off my mortgage, pay off my students loans; so a computer is not high on the priority list.  But running the NYC Half Marathon is :)

Here is how training went. 
For not running consistently for about 8 months before I started training, I think I did a damn good job.  I did miss about 5 workouts here or there which I am not proud of but life gets in the way and that’s the truth.  Some days I had to bring my cats to the vet or I worked late, some days I went home and laid in bed. One time I was at work ready to get changed for work, I took my work pants off to put my running shorts off then put my work pants back on because I was tired and didn’t want to go.  Yup, pathetic but the truth.

Yay, I almost hit a 100 mile month...ALMOST

Most of my runs were pretty decent there were a few I was disappointed with.  I enjoyed the long runs, except for 1.  I am calling that a win!  My tempo miles were not as fast as I would have liked them to be but my body just isn’t there yet.  I did a few strength training day, again, not as many as I would have likes but certainly more than I have done in the past.  I also managed to gain 5-6 pounds because potato chips and watching TV because more important that walking and grading.  My highest weekly mileage was 30 and lowest was 13.5 (FAIL!!)  I managed to be put on steroids twice this training cycle and the first time my paces were so fast I thought I had a PR in me, little did I realize it was just the steroids.

My TNT girls

Who I ran with. 

The first half of the training plan I ran alone for my long runs, they were short enough I didn’t have to put water out and my scheduled allowed me to even get some runs done on a Thursday or a Friday.  Most Sunday recovery runs Behn joined in with me so it was nice to have some time to spend with him.  For the second part I joined Team in Training and was able to run with my girls!  It was a nice change of pace.  

Behn I headed out for 2 miles.  It was in the 50s and this is how different we dress.

What I listened to:

I don’t normally run with music or anything but if it was a long or recovery run I would sometimes pop on serial season two.  If I wanted to get out of my head I would jab out to Miley Cyrus or Taylor Swift. 

My tempo runs I didn’t listen to anything except for my heavy uncontrolled breathing (sorry Coach).  

I ran one race while training for the NYC Half.  I ran the Orlando Best Damn Race 10k and really enjoyed it.  This was a peak week for me and my legs were toast.  I managed to go 1:03:29 and was very happy with that.  I secretly wanted to PR or go a little faster but I am OK with that!  My current PR is 1:02: with some change, I forgot already!

So thats how my training went :)

I have a few goals I am going to share.  These are very loose goals because this is my first half marathon in well over a year.  I have no idea where my half fitness is, in terms of racing.  Obviously I would Love a shiny new PR but thats not what I am aiming for.  Besides having fun and running through my favorite place in the World, Times Square, I want to see where my half fitness is.

Finished BDR 10K

Ideally, Here is what I would like to see and here are by A, B, C Goals:

A Goal: 2:15

B Goal 2:18 (This would be a coarse PR, I think)

C Goal - Keeping an 11:00 pace or better and not die :)

How do you determine your goals for race day?

Anyone know of any way to make my Macbook Pro faster?