Friends, it is that time of year again: time to get myself in gear for the Bremen Half Marathon on October 2nd. I don’t want to go too crazy with the running posts, but you guys know running is kind of what I do for fun, so just skip over them if you’re not into it. Plus the Runner Beans and Ali On the Run are really inspiring me right now with their training updates for the NYC Marathon, so here I go with logging Week 1 of the Bremen Half!

My general plan is actually four days of running per week, including one speed or tempo run and one long run, plus a few runs at half-marathon pace thrown in here and there. I’m following a modified Hal Higdon plan using the paces from the Run Less, Run Faster book. I don’t want to completely abandon the Run Less, Run Faster approach since it helped me shave nearly 10 minutes off my half marathon time in under a year, but it also left me completely exhausted all the time and usually sick at least once per training cycle. Not good. So, let’s see how a hybrid version works for helping me get under 2:00 (or at least under my record of 2:04). I’m also trying to incorporate strength training (as often as I can) and at least one cross-training session (i.e., swimming or cycling) per week.

Honestly, the first week got off to kind of a slow start thanks to general laziness, terrible weather, and crazy deadlines at work. But I hope I’ve gotten into a groove that will carry me through to October.

Monday:  Rest day

Tuesday: 3 easy miles

Wednesday: Should have done my speed workout, but I ended up working til 10pm instead.

Thursday: The pouring rain drowned out my motivation, plus I was exhausted. (But not too exhausted to go to Breminale!)

Friday: Finally, my speed workout — 10-minute warm-up, plus 5 rounds of 400 meters as fast as I could manage, plus a 10-minute cool down. All of the running tracks that I know of are not located so conveniently for me, so I usually just find a straight away near the park or the river without too many pedestrians and rely on my GPS watch to tell me when the 400 meters are up. I definitely slowed down during my marathon training and my times are definitely not as fast as they need to be by the time of the half, but I’m sure they will improve over the next 12 weeks.

Saturday: 30-minute strength training at home using the Nike Training Club app.

Sunday: Just an easy 5 miles on one of first summer-like days we’ve had so far this summer.

That’s it for this week! I hope I have more to report to you by the end of Week 2. :)

Anyone else training for a fall race? Just for fun, or do you want to break a personal record?