6 Miles

Today was my first 6 mile run of my half-marathon training, and I think it went incredibly well. I feel that I was in good shape mentally, which is just as important as the physical. Listening to audiobooks is definitely helping me get through the longer distances...and doing the longer distances helps a ton with the shorter distances. It's amazing how short 3 miles feels these days.

Mentally, I broke down the run into 3 parts... 3 miles, 2 miles, then the final mile. For the first part, I stayed at 5 mph, then I went 5.2 mph for the 2nd part. I mixed up the final mile a little. My body could have gone much faster, but I decided to pace myself to avoid injury.

I also came up with a plan to carry me through to the half in October. I will continue with the 12 week program I'm currently on (Hal Higdon), and then I will work on improving my time with the 10 week Runner's World plan, which is still only 3 days a week of running (with cross-training on 3 other days).

For events, I will be doing a 5k next weekend, a 10k in July, a 10 mile in August, and the half in October.

My diet has been pretty good overall. I've averaged a caloric deficit of about 500 calories per day, and I've lost 3 lbs in 3 weeks...exactly as predicted. Even though it's only 3 lbs, I can see differences in my shape, which is the most important part anyways.