The week of half marathon training is the building block to subsequent weeks. However, it needs to be easy enough to be motivating enough to keep going. I had developed our jeffing sub 2 hour half marathon training plan to start slowly. This meant my mileage was cut right back. Some of it I had made quite loose to fit in around life and its changes. This is how our first week went.
Jeffing a Sub 2 Hour Half Marathon Training Progress
The First Week
We began the training plan back at the end of May. Day one started with just over 4 ½ mile walk, so that was easy enough. Well actually it was rather wet and my husband asked me if we wanted picking up. This when we were less than a mile from home and we had our coats.
Unfortunately the next day happened to be my birthday and we were just mega busy. Therefore we missed our first strength training session.
Drill Session
Wednesdays are drill sessions. We did a mile warm up which also got us to where we went to be. The park seemed the obvious choice as it is easier to do faster bits – and there’s some inclines to help with the acceleration gliders. We decided to do these and the cadence drills in the following mile. Mainly because we didn’t really know what we were meant to be doing.
Race Pace
Next we did a mile at race pace – still doing a 90:30 jeff. For me this was in 8 minutes 47, teen was slower – but he pointed out that it wasn’t meant to be that fast. He is always telling me that I need to learn to pace myself better.
Cool Down
We were meant to do a mile cool down but teen said he could only walk. I did half a mile looping back before I knew I wouldn’t be able to persuade him and so walked too. It was rather hot also.
Cross-Training
Cross-training is something I think I have got better at. Of course it is largely weather dependent on if I get to swim or not. This first week teen took me on a just over 5 mile bike ride. This is nothing to him but hard for me. He did go nice and slow, well slow for him. Planning a route where I wouldn’t be too scared of the traffic.
Walking Day
In total I did around 5 miles in “walks” but with teen it was just a 5K. At this point it was about getting him to commit to walking on Fridays.
Race Pace Day
Saturdays I had scheduled in a race pace day – with increasing mileage, with some 800m repeats in instead some weeks. The younger teen also wanted to come with us that day. We again did a warm up mile to the park before doing 2 miles at race pace.
This time I managed to average a 9 minutes 30. Already I was convinced I wouldn’t make the sub 2 hour half marathon goal. It was so hard, and just slightly too slow. It was so hot though too.
As an extra I tried a Yin Yoga free taster class with my husband locally. It was good but it’s £8 a session, which whilst good value I can’t really justify it on a regular basis.
The Long Sunday Run
On the Sunday morning we had been out with the youngest two. By the time we got back it was too hot to run. Then the teen was busy with some gaming thing which was live. We did not let all this defeat us though and still knocked out a 10K at 9pm. In fact it was much nicer that late at night.
Of course I set off too fast, and teen told me to slow down. He wanted to give up at both 4 and 5 miles but managed it to the 10K. I was so proud.
The Second Week of Sub 2 Hour Jeffing Half Marathon Training Plan
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