Half-Marathon Training in Texas Summer is Kind of a Silly Goofy Thing to Do

but hey, let's do it anyway.

Today, I am starting week four of my half-marathon training block. I’ve never trained for a half-marathon before (although I have run 10 miles in one go, so pretty close!), and I don’t actually have a race scheduled. This will be my second race-less training block, and I’m looking forward to my next crocheted medal in 8 weeks! 

Training like this is necessary because I’ve found that I have a hard time running without a plan, and even if I do have a plan – unless there’s a race or distance I’m working towards, I give up pretty quickly. So I tend to just rotate through running projects throughout the year, and take a few weeks off here and there. I would have loved to run a race, but unfortunately, there are not many in Texas during the summer. Which, ya know, makes sense. It’s hot. 

My tolerance to heat is… somewhere in the middle. For a Texan, I suppose that I am on the lower end of the spectrum, and I tend to cut myself off from outdoor running at 80 degrees (and/or 90%+ humidity). However, compared to those in cooler climates, I would say I’m pretty resilient! When I went to Victoria, BC, I realized I was the only one running at 3-4 PM, and I know it is a pretty active city so I was a bit confused. In hindsight, I’m sure that I looked a little crazy running in the hottest part of the day. I was just excited to get to run at a crisp 73 degrees. 

As I mentioned in my post about the Sunshine Run, I really enjoy the Hal Higdon training plans - they’ve worked well for me and my schedule, especially when I still had a full-time job. This 12-week plan also follows the rest of my planned sabbatical length (more or less). So it’s nice to look at my plan on the fridge every morning and be able to visualize where I am on this journey.

I chose the half-marathon distance to prepare for the Rock n Roll half-marathon in December (but I might up it to the full marathon…. stay tuned). I would love to crush this race, and having a half-marathon training block under my belt before then would be ideal. That way, I can focus more on speed and strategizing during the big race instead of wondering if I’m able to run the miles. I’ll have learned so much from doing a training block right before and it will help with any optimizations I will need to make. 

On this plan, I run three times a week - Tuesday and Thursday are the same distance (depending on how deep I am in the training block - it’ll range between 3-5 miles). On Sunday I have my long run - and this will range between 4-10 miles, increasing each week. I run these slowly and focus on having a solid, consistent experience, no matter how many miles I run.

I also have two days of cross-training each week. These are measured in minutes and can range between 30 minutes to an hour. Cross-training can be a walk, biking, weightlifting, climbing, tennis, yoga, or anything else that is not running. I do have the option on this plan to substitute one cross-training with one run: either 2 or 3 miles. So far, I have opted for biking and yoga on these days, but I would like to start doing more weight training and climbing to build strength.

Training in the Texas summer has proven to be somewhat challenging so far, especially because of the heat wave we’re experiencing. Or at least I think it is a heat wave — I hope that the rest of the summer won’t be like this, or I will have many more boring treadmill runs in my future. As I mentioned, whether I’m able to run outside or inside, I am forcing myself to slow down. If I were to run at the same pace I was at a few months ago (9-11 minute miles) in this weather, I would get frustrated and push my body too hard. So now, I run more in the range of 11-13 minute miles. This training block is pretty long at 12 weeks, so I’m focusing more on getting my mileage in. This has also been an opportunity to work on heart rate training. I try to not let it get above a certain number in order to reduce the amount of strain I need to put on my body to run, resulting in me being able to run faster at a lower heart rate. I’ve been happy with my performance so far!

I am fortunate to have a treadmill at my gym, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t SO boring. The only solution I have found is to cover up the mileage/time stats with a Post-it note or a towel. I am participating in #1000WordsOfSummer right now, and have found writing to be pretty similar to running, especially when you have a word count goal. Much like on my treadmill, I constantly glance at the word count (my mileage) and feel like the run is dragging on and on. The best strategy is to just look away and write, and I will probably end up surpassing my mileage/writing goal for the day sooner than I expected.

I honestly don’t know how “race” day will go, other than that I want to do it outside and it will probably be pretty hot. Good thing I will have prepared! I will of course keep you updated as I continue my training.

Follow me on Strava and reach out if you have any questions!