The Sub 2 Hour Half Marathon Project – The End of Phase 2

Well, can you believe it’s March already?

Mr Chicks Half Marathon that I promised to help him train for is just over 3 weeks away, and we are just moving into a speed building phase, with a lot less time left than I originally planned.

We’ve since reviewed the goals for the Half Marathon as training for it got a little derailed. Sticking to the program has been a big issue since we started. Phase 2 was supposed to be an endurance building phase. Originally we aimed to build up to the full half marathon distance, but some skipped runs in phase 1 meant that this got downgraded to 11.5 miles.

We made it to week 8, and although one of the mid week runs got missed, the weekends 10 mile run went well, even if it did involve climbing over trees. Mr Chick said he felt super tired towards the end, that’s fine! I said. The whole point of this is to build up the mileage and get used to it, so you will feel tired, but by the time you’ve been doing 10 miles plus every weekend it’ll be a BREEZE.

Then he came down with the cold from hell and spent a full week on the sofa, missing the next weekends 10 mile run, and 2 shorter runs, and all the cross training sessions. After over a week with no running at all we had to ease back into it fairly gently, though he did manage another long slow 10 mile run, on the weekend that SHOULD have been up to 11.5 miles.

Phew. This training lark is complicated.

February looked like this.

I’d planned in 2 short runs and a long run each week. Mr Chick seems to manage to head out for 1 short run and a long run each week.

Then the beginning of March hit, and, er, nothing at all till the 9th.

Hopefully we’re back on track now. At the moment there is a significant drop off in speed in the last hald of long runs, but we still have 2 full weeks training and I’m hoping to work in a little speed work and get in at least 3 more long runs before then so there’s still time.

Like I mentioned earlier, we have also revisited the goals in the light of skipped training sessions.

Gold medal will be nabbing that under 2 hour half marathon. Silver medal will be getting a PB and beating his previous best chip time of 2:05:35. Bronze will be beating his last Half Marathon time in November 2015 of 2:16:04. The route of this years race is the same as the November 2015, so it’ll be a comparable time to see if this years extra training has paid off at all, despite the setbacks.

As is now traditional I have asked Mr Chick for a little feedback, and here’s how he felt about the training so far….

I enjoy long runs, especially if I can find a new route, looking at the scenery distracts me from the pain in my legs. It’s my legs that suffer most rather than my breathing, I guess this wouldn’t be the case if I did the extra work Gemma suggests. My first 10 miles was quite hard, especially as it was at the tail end of a cold, but not too bad. The second was much easier but still way out of my Gold Target pace. This week we start on speed work, which I will hate, I am not a sprinter.

Watch this space guys, because there’s not long now till we find out the results…..