Wine and Dine Half Training: Week 12 !!!!

Holy crap on a cracker - I made it! 12 weeks of training and I'm *relatively* unbroken.  Last week was another tough but very good week & I'm feeling pretty confident going into taper mode.  I have no doubts I'll finish the race, how quickly remains to be seen.

Monday 10/29/12 - RUN: 6 mile tempo in 1:00:47 - I was SOOOO freaking close to doing this in under an hour.  

Tuesday 10/30/12 - XT: Did a couple Nike Training Club workouts for about 30 minutes total.  Arms and abs & I felt it for days afterwards.  Note to self: more strength training is needed.

Wednesday 10/31/12 - XT: Cycled spin intervals.  My shin has been starting to complain more and more so today I did intervals on a spin bike instead of 800s.  I felt a little like I was cheating on my running though, but giving my shin and break was really the best move.  Covered 20.5 miles in 56:53 (if you are to believe the bike).

Thursday 11/1/12 - Rest day. Not really intended, but my daughter was diving in the conference prelims and I was at the meet all night.

Friday 11/2/12 - XT: Swimming 1200 meters/yards (no clue what our pool is) in 33:52.  It felt good to give my leg a little break from gravity, but all the kicking still kicked my butt - pun intended. 

Saturday 11/3/12 -  RUN: 10.01 miles in 1:46:21.  This run freaking kicked ass! It wasn't my fastest 10 miles ever, but came pretty close.  The amazing thing was running the last 2 miles at my fastest pace - 9:45s.  Crazy.  I recapped the run here. Almost immediately after the run, hubs and I headed to the D (that would be Detroit) to watch the State Marching Band finals.  Our kids finished 8th in the state in level 1 (the biggest schools). It was a very long day & I don't recommend sitting in a car for 3 hours and then a football stadium (they marched at Ford Field) for the rest of the night after running 10 miles. You WILL hurt. A LOT.

Sunday 11/4/12 - XT/stretching: Mostly I sat in the car some more, including some time on I-696 after our tire blew. Basically, we paid for our AAA membership and barely made it home in time to get the kids.  At one point, their busses passed us as we were driving the glacial speed of 55 mph after we got the donut put on the van. I did some stretching when we got home and lots of walking up and down the stairs doing laundry.  I figure all that counts somehow.

Now I am officially in taper mode and my last half marathon of the year (this will be number 3 in case anyone is keeping track) is just a few days away.  I'm not sure what I'm more excited about, running the race, running through Disney World, or getting to hang with my friends a bit this weekend.  In any case, it's gearing up to be an amazing weekend.

Thanks for putting up with the training recaps.  Next week should contain a race report!