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13 Weeks to 13 Miles! OUC Orlando Half Marathon Training: Week 11

It's the biggest week of the training plan!! Here. We. Go!

Tuesday
Plan: 5 Miles, Actual: 5 Miles
We have officially hit the point that 5 miles doesn't seem like much anymore. It's just 5 miles. The only downfall with this run was that it was about 5 degrees cooler than I would have liked. Oh well. Beggars can't be choosers so I'm letting that go. It wasn't as cold as I was on Sunday morning so I will take that as a win. I did my normal route and didn't see the bear. Again. So that's about all I felt with this run. I was having a bit of pain on the side of my calf like I have before but it went away after about a mile. My pace was about average for me at around 13:30 or so. The run felt good though. That's about it. It's becoming so routine at this point that I don't have a lot to say about most of these shorter runs. They are standard, I guess. And I guess that is good.

Thursday
Plan: 5 Miles, Actual: 5 Miles
All in all, not a bad run. Honestly, I'm a half week or so removed from it and I don't really remember it. I remember that it was a bit chilly but I think it was my overall happy temperature to run. Mid 50's makes me feel pretty good. I am having a new fun thing that with the cooler weather, as I breathe, I tend to cough more. It isn't fun and sort of hurts. Oh well. One thing I have noticed throughout this training cycle is my lack of stitches. I used to get them somewhat frequently but don't really have them any longer. I'm not sure if it is just better training or maybe the cooler weather... or being better hydrated as that is something I have tried to focus on for the last few months. I have no idea. All I know is that I don't miss them. That is for sure.

Sunday
Plan: 12 Miles, Actual: 12 Freaking Miles
This was the one run that I was dreading from day 1. I knew this day would come. It didn't help that the day before I got home from the Florida Aquarium after an overnight with Girl Scouts and I was tired. I went to bed early though and Steven took the kids to church with him so I didn't have to rush out to start my run. I started around 5:45. The only real downfall to that was running for quite a while after the sun was up. I figured I might as well though because the race will be entirely in the sun. I'm just hoping it is cool that day. This run started at about 66 degrees which is okay for shorter runs, but this was 12. It wasn't bad. I can't actually complain too much. The only bad part was towards the very end, maybe the last 2 miles, when the sun broke through the clouds and anytime I ran east, I was running right into it. I had to pull my hat down pretty low. I definitely hit a proverbial wall around 8 miles. I stopped by the house to refill my water bottle and it was so hard to walk back out. Granted I only stopped in the garage for maybe a minute... but it was rough. Then when I hit about 9.5 miles, I had an even harder time getting it together. I kept thinking about the fact that I still had 2.5 miles to go. I sucked it up and did it though. Mile 11 was really difficult. I thought it might be easier knowing I was so close... but I was just tired. So tired. And so thirsty. But I was trying to keep some of my water until a little closer to the end so I was rationing. Last long run I got hungry in the middle. This one I just couldn't get enough water. Maybe I needed salt instead... but I didn't have any Nuun tablets or anything and was doing it all with just water. Usually when I finish a run, I can eat almost immediately. This run took me a while. I wasn't nauseous or anything. I just wasn't hungry. Later in the day though, I was starving. My overall pace was 13:44. Not too bad. Mile 2 was again over 14 minutes. I have no idea what is up with my random slower Mile 2's. So weird. Mile 12 was 14:12, but that didn't really surprise me. Other than those two, everything was under 14 minute miles. So I'm calling that a win. However, I don't think I will finish the half in less than 3 hours like I thought I may be able to do when I was running shorter distances. Not a big deal for me... but I don't think I will do it. I have said before and I will say again, it's all about distance for me. Not speed. I just want to know I can do it.

With this week (I have been referring to it as Peak Week) done, we are now officially tapering. And I'm not sad about that. Next week is downright easy compared to what we have been doing. So close. So very close.

Total Weekly Miles: 22
Total Training Miles: 149.93 (I'm so irritated that this isn't above 150...)

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