Aesthete Runner

On Saturday I completed the F^3 Lake Half Marathon and have finally thawed out! In all seriousness, I really enjoyed the race and while cold, the weather was tolerable. For those wanting the quick story, I did not PR but had one of my most consistently paced races to date. Read on for the full details of race day.

With the conclusion of the Hansons base building plan I have been writing about for 8 weeks, I picked up with the Hansons Beginner Half plan to continue training for the F^3 Lake Half Marathon that I wrote about back in November . While I am no beginner to the half marathon, the Hansons beginner plan is what I previously used to achieve my 6 min half marathon PR last spring, and there is nothing "beginner" about it. I couldn't have picked a better time to pick up the plan as it aligned with the start of Hansons strength workouts. After doing speedwork for the past 8 weeks, it was perfect timing to stop the speed runs and focus more on strength. I discuss the strength workouts in more detail in my Marathon training post here .

I often joke that a person is not a "runner" unless he or she has experienced an injury. While this is not true, the reality is that most runners will experience an injury at one point or another. Whether it is merely a shin pain that lasts for a day or two or a fracture, injuries still suck.

The final week! I will write about the actual race another time, but I will say that overall it was a great experience. I did not achieve the time that I wanted or trained for, but I am proud of the 6 minute PR I accomplished.

ONE WEEK! I don't know if it has quite hit me yet that this time next week, assuming all goes well, I will have finished the Chicago Marathon. All of the weeks of training have finally come down to this final week.

Two weeks until race day!!!! At times I felt like the weeks were going by really quickly, but now that we are so close to the marathon I don't think it can get here fast enough. While most runners using traditional training plans have already started their taper, Hansons still keeps you on your feet..literally.