Half Marathon training :Week 6

Training On Ramp
Week 6

by Scott Campbell

We enter right into the beginning of Week 4  in training for the Encinitas Half Marathon. The first 3 weeks have been pretty intense for The Runner's Journey. I had to pick a 9 week training schedule due to procrastinating and work. Here is the training schedule. 

It is starting to have it's affects now in Week 4. I am sore all over however when I run I can feel the results of the off season strength training that I did with weights. The strategy has been the first 2 weeks I ran only on the treadmill. I call it the shakeout weeks where I see if I am injury free . Then I start taking it outside. Here in Southern California the winters are mild and for me that means running. I know some of you might be snowed in right now and can't run but that is how it is here in the summer. It's too hot unless one trains early morning or in the evenings. . 

So far the runs have been in the San Pasqual Valley. I love running there and have learned that there are more trails out there. This last weekend I ran coming into the valley from the west side . It is an excellent place to run with a broad well graded trail for the first couple of miles. 

I could run on trails every time if I could. When I am out in nature running it is the best . 

It is now week 6 and I am in what I like to call the hell week of this particular trainig schedule. My take aways are :

• weight training equals better running 
• sticking to the training schedule increases chances of PR
• running is fun

When I am running I have begun t push myself and turn almost every training run into a speed workout a some point in the run. I have found that doing this has increased my speed and stamina. I also have completely come off the treadmill and all my running is outside . I prefer that. I havent't been blogging a lot because I am training an dwant to break that 2:10 pace for a half marathon. 

Here are some highlights from last Sunday's LSD ( Long Slow Distance ) run. Enjoy 

Chelsea King Memorial

It was  7 years ago exactly since she was killed by that monster . You can read about it here 

Chelsea King

I am a spiritual person so I offered her spirit, if it was there my hand and I told her lets finish your run together. I ran the rest of my run in her honor. 

Happy Running to You All !