This week I also made it official; I registered for the Half Marathon portion of the White Rock Marathon.  I had held off a while to make sure my foot was healing before I paid to register.  Now it is official.  I am in!  Yee ha!

My second week of training is just about in the books.  I planned for running my long training run this morning, but we had some pretty severe rainstorms move through the area at sunrise.  I had hoped that these would have stayed away long enough for me to get my run in, but I was woken by thunder at 6am, and knew from the continuous downpour that my run would be scratched. 

I have run in rain before, but that was during the hottest part of summer, when the cool rain brought me some relief; also this usually occurred on my shorter run days, when I would not be to far from safe cover.  With today being a 5-miler day and with the inclusion of lightning in the sky, I thought that it would be best to postpone the run until tomorrow.

 As it stands I completed two training runs this week.

My run on Tuesday was a hilly run.  I never intended it to have that many hills, but due to my forgetfulness of the area I ran it became a nice challenge.  My time was not all that great, but it was still a good run!

Distance 3.00 mi, Duration 0:34:33, Pace 11:31 min/mile, Speed 5.2 mph.

Thursday’s run was more like my usual lunchtime run, however my GPS got a little screwy and I ended up further away from work, than I had planned.  I ran my 3 mile run, but then had a supplemental run walk, in order to make it back to the office before my lunch hour ended!  That was an adventure!

 Distance 3.00 mi, Duration 0:36:08, Pace 12:02 min/mile, Speed 5.0 mph.

And my supplement run/walk

Distance .58 mi, Duration 0:7:46, Pace 13:29 min/mile, Speed 4.47 mph.

Also this week I took Elvis the pup on several early morning walks which ended up adding seven more miles to my weekly total.  After tomorrow’s run I should have about 18.62 miles logged for the week.

After an assigned and required rest day Monday, it was time to get on it!  Tuesday I hit the pavement during lunch to get in my training time.  Summer is NOT over in Dallas, and that made it seriously difficult for me to get through this leg.  It was not my best performance running-wise, but I finished it. 

Distance 2.68 mi, Duration 0:38:09, Pace 14:14 min/mile, Speed 4.2 mph.

Wednesday was supposed to be another rest day, but I needed to get in a good walk to boost my mood, and get some fresh air.  It was a brisk walk, that gave me some good distance at lunch.

Distance 2.76 mi, Duration 0:46:00, Pace 16:38 min/mile, Speed 3.6 mph.

Today’s run was much better.  I was able to take my lunch a couple of hours earlier, so I could get out there and beat the noon-time heat.  It still was not easy, but it was so much better than Tuesday’s run!!

 Distance 2.52 mi, Duration 0:29:29, Pace 11:42 min/mile, Speed 5.1 mph.

Each morning I put in about 2 miles of dog walking, as well. So that also contributes to my training.  Pup and I run a little, but it is not at the intensity that I run, on my training runs.  He is too young still to run the distances, and the walk is more for him to sniff, walk, and do his business. 

Saturday or Sunday will be a 3 miler.  I can pick which ever day I wish.  As time gets closer to the date of the Half Marathon, I’ll start trying to focus on doing the long weekend day runs, on Sundays.

The day after heavy ran is never fun to run in, ESPECIALLY in the Texas summers. I just could not get comfortable in my breathing. The air was thick and steamy. It did not help that I kept encountering lawn maintenance guys mowing down all the grass from the heavy rains. The exhaust about made my lungs freak out.

I made it though. 3.3 miles in 39:12. I had to walk a lot of the last 1/4 to 1/2 mile.