Week 4

I went for a hike before my Monday tempo run and started experiencing some calf tightness in my left leg.  I decided to do my run that day anyway to see if it would loosen up.  I'm not sure it was the best idea but it did feel a bit better after a while.

According to the training program, this week is supposed to be a cutback week where the mileage is reduced to allow the body to recover from hard training.  However, with a planned vacation next week where it will be difficult to fit in runs, I decided to delay the cutback to Week 5 and did 6 miles instead of the scheduled 4.

My VO2 Max continues its gentle climb and is up to 40.3.

Week 3

The runs in my training program are getting longer.  However, I'm managing to increase my pace on the tempo runs slightly and am maintaining race day pace for a longer duration of my Race Pace Run.

The long, slow distance run this week was 6 miles and my maximum VO2 Max reading this week was 40.1, continuing the gradual improvement since I started running again.

Week 2

You'd think that, being retired, I'd have plenty of time to get my training done.  But, once again, life intervened and I missed my strength training day this week.  At least I got my runs in and made up the strength training on my rest day.

My long run this week was 5 miles.  That's the most I've done since I did my marathon 14 years ago.  I was happy to be done but could have gone further if required.

I have an Apple Watch and one of the statistics it tracks is VO2 Max.  While I realize it may not be entirely accurate, I'm looking at it for longer term trends.  This week I maxed at 39.  When I started the training program, my best reading that week was 38.3.  It appears that I'm slowly trending upwards which is nice to see.

Week 1

This week was the first official week of my half marathon training as I started a 12-week program by Marathon Handbook.  I had to shift the run days around to fit my schedule and I'm using elements from other training programs as well.

We spent a couple days in Whistler so, once again, I had to fit my runs in where I could.  My race pace run still didn't quite meet my goal but it was closer.  I missed my strength training day; instead I ended up doing a 8.5 mile hike.

I was pretty tired by the time we returned home from Whistler so instead of doing the scheduled tempo run with hills, I went at an easy pace.

The long run for Week 1 was 4 miles.  I had done up to 4.5 miles recently so this was no problem.

On my Sunday rest day, I made up the strength training I missed earlier in the week.