When we last checked-in I wrote about the rough start to my half-marathon training plan after I got sick and had to skip six of my first nine running sessions. I got back on track in week 3 of the 16-week plan, modifying a few runs but generally feeling good about where I was at physically.

Fast-forward two weeks and I’m running on all cylinders. I completed my longest run of the year (10 miles / 16.1km) to kick-off week 4 of the plan, and followed that up with my longest run ever last Sunday – 12 miles / 19.35km – which I completed in 2:00:01 and burned a whopping 1,932 calories!

Here’s an update on the last two weeks of training:

Week 4:

• Sunday February 25th – Run 16.1km steady/fast
• Tuesday February 27th – Run 8km plus four 30-second strides
• Wednesday February 28th – Run 11.3km steady (work commitment)
• Thursday March 1st – Run 12.9km tempo modified to 11.3km steady
• Saturday March 3rd – Run 9.7km slow modified to 6km slow

Week 5:

• Sunday March 4th – Run 19.3km steady/fast
• Tuesday March 6th – Run 8km slow
• Thursday March 8th – Run 8km slow
• Saturday March 10th – Run 8km slow

Fueling Up For My Longest Run Ever

The 12-mile run gave me a taste of what’s to come in this grueling half-marathon training plan. Taking my wife’s advice I used fuel for the first time, scarfing down three CLIF BLOKS energy chews at the half-way point of my run. My previous “longest run ever” was 10-miles (on four other occasions) and my energy was pretty much spent afterwards. My wife has completed two half-marathons (on this training plan) and suggested that 10-miles was my breaking point – anything longer and I’d have to experiment with using fuel during the run.

The BLOKS worked out great! Time to stock up on these energy chews as I start getting into long runs of 20km+ in the middle of this training plan. I figure that now is a good time to experiment with different products and taking them at different times during my long-runs to see what works best. The last thing I want is to try something completely new on race day!

I’ll write a follow-up article with the best fuel for long runs, comparing the different energy bars, chews, and tablets on the market.

Final thoughts

It’s always a good feeling to achieve a personal best – whether it’s a fastest time or farthest distance. I’m happy to be back on track and hitting new heights with this training plan. I can complain all I want about how tough this plan will be to complete, but the point of it is to test my limits and push beyond what I thought was possible.

If I can run 12 miles, surely one more mile (and change) is doable. And, as the plan pushes beyond 21km long runs, I’ll no longer fear the distance come race day. Instead I’ll be able to focus on hitting a specific time goal.

“Run often. Run long. But never outrun your joy of running.” —Julie Isphording, former Olympic runner.