I can’t believe I’m actually having to type that it’s coming to the end of the summer. It has definitely felt like summer, though…super hot by Buffalo standards.

Most days have been in the 80’s, with the lows not very low.

My next race goal is to run a sub-2 hour half marathon, and I have been running 5 days a week. I am LOVING this training program, because of the variety. It is full of runs that are more than just “run 4 miles”, “run 8 miles”, “run 12 miles”.

My husband and I are doing all kinds of different runs and we are feeling like we were getting stronger and faster.

The one thing that I am having to do during the week sometimes is get up and run early in the morning. It has been so hot, we are trying to beat the heat and my husband usually has to be to work fairly early as well.

So yeah, I can be up and out the door before 6am! I am NOT a morning person. I usually don’t say much the first 2 miles, lol. I am glad when we are done that I did it, but it can be oh so hard to get out of bed.

I am over 50, so some nights I am up a lot with insomnia, night sweats (if you can call turning the sheets into a pool mere “sweats”) and wanting to drink a ton.

Clarification…my thirst is for water, jsyk!

If we are getting out really early, I will wear my running clothes to bed. That way all I have to do is brush my teeth and put on sneakers. That small thing helps me have the motivation to roll out and go.

Training in Florida

While I was in Florida I had some threshold runs. These consist of warming up with a 2-mile run and then running at our 10K pace for 4 miles with 90 seconds of rest in between each mile.

If you don’t know what your 10K pace is you can find a calculator here to figure out your paces for different distances. The calculation is based off of a recent race or run that matches a popular race distance.

We used a pretend half marathon of 1:59:50 so we could find out what the paces should be to finish a half in less than 2 hours.

The humidity in Florida was BRUTAL. I looked like I was getting out of the pool by the end of the run. If you follow me on Instagram, you saw some of the videos I did right after the run…they were not pretty!

Bathroom Issues

We went out one morning, and about 2 miles into the run my insides were cramping up something fierce. I have never felt anything like it on a run. I made my husband stop, and I crouched on the sidewalk and couldn’t move for a few minutes.

He was understandably afraid that I was going to have an “issue” right there on the sidewalk! “Are you going right there???” Lol, no…I did not want to be part of a viral video as rush hour traffic was driving by!

We attempted to walk a bit, but I had to keep stopping. The cramps were so bad I literally couldn’t move.

I finally felt a little better and made it back to my daughter’s place. Now I know what havoc can be wreaked on a run with intestinal difficulty. I am impressed with anyone who has ever finished a race with that!

Note to self: DO NOT TAKE A LAXATIVE THE NIGHT BEFORE AN EARLY MORNING RUN!!!

Running Drills

This morning we did a VO2 Max workout and ran 14×400 meters at our 3k pace with 2 minutes rests.

There was also a 2-mile warmup and 1 mile cool down. I have fallen in love with the intervals app (YouTube tutorial here) I use all over again! It can measure distance as well as time, so I can input the whole workout to the app and my watch tells me when to switch to the next interval. It has been so useful for these drills!

You can read about the half-marathon training plan we are using here. Go to the websites the post directs you too, and take a look at the accompanying article on the different kinds of runs the plan includes.

Very informative if you are interested in doing some training that entails different drills.

Summer Training

Summer training can be exhausting because of the heat, but we take water and electrolytes.

We live by the waterfront here in Buffalo, so staying near the lake breeze helps a lot.

We were hoping a mid-September half marathon would be cooler, but here it is a few weeks out and still hovering near 90.

My friends keep telling me that does not bode well for winter…that we will have (another) incredibly cold one. We will see about that, but for now we keep doing what we know to do to stay hydrated and hope that there will suddenly be 50 degree days and cloud cover for the half!!