Week 8 & 9: Portland Half – I’m ready. I think.

Okay.  I suck.  Life get in a way and I am 2 weeks behind on my running blog.    Good thing though, my training is been consistent, even though I have to take, yet another week off (during week 8) because I’m sick.    So my post today will be a wee bit different.   I’m not going to list the plan, just the actual on what happened.

Week 8 Summary:

I did NOTHING.   I was sick and wasn’t able to run at all.  Actually, I tried.  Last me about a couple miles while I was huffing and puffing, trying to breath AND cough in the same time.

Week 9 Summary:

Monday:

I ran around my neighborhood and put in a good 4 miles.  I felt strong and able to focus on the run.   After a week not doing much of anything, this run felt really good

Tuesday:

Strength Training.   I did a little bit, well, okay, fewer than a little bit of this at home.   I did only a couple of hip strengthening routines, couple lunges and squat.  12 reps, 3 sets.

Wednesday:

Put in another 4 miles.   I was a bit sluggish as I was tired, but had a good run

Thursday:

Cross training day.  I totally bailed on this one.   Had a lot of things going on, and completely miss the window that I can go to the gym and do this

Friday:

Rest

Saturday

Long 12 miles run day for me.   I went to Snoqualmie Valley Trail around 10am.   Yes, it’s kinda late for a long-run, but that’s the beauty about this trail.   There’s lots of trees around.  Lot of them, so it never really get too hot even in the middle of the day.  The weather is perfect 50 degrees with just enough sunshine.

I turn my audiobooks on, set my runmeter and off I went.   I was doing 3-1 Galloway method.  Run for 3 minutes, Walk for 1 minutes.   Before I knew it, I hit halfway point and felt really strong.   I slow down a bit on the second half as I felt that I ran a wee bit too fast for what I am used to.   I finished the entire 12 miles within 2 hours 19 minutes and still have plenty of energy to do 3 miles walk in the evening for my Light the Night Walk around Greenlake.   Not too shaby for a first-timer.

Sunday:

Rest

Fundraising:

Haven’t done much on this front as I’m going to my second phase of fundraising for the Tinker Bell Marathon.   I’ll be more active about this after my Portland Half.   Link for my fundraising page is here