Thoughts on my AI training plan

Training this year has been a magically consistent thing, more than ever before. I've finally hit the summer-training slump, so I'm hoping a little look back on my accomplishments will help kick me into gear for the last few intensive weeks before I leave for vacation.

Because my last half of the year is only 10 days after I return from a two-week vacation in Singapore and Bali, I decided I needed some help creating my training plan. I used my work-granted access to Claude to create an interactive training calendar and put it to use.

Race day draws nigh!

My spring half is this weekend, I am feeling all kinds of ways about it.

On the one hand, I managed to complete my training cycle with only a few hiccups. My last three long runs were 9-10 miles each and I only missed one workout in April. After a patchy March, it feels like I'm ending training on a high note and am as ready as I realistically could expect to be.

A Beginner's Injury

I started running in 2008. Like most runners, especially those who come to it for the first time as adults, I've dealt with my share of injuries. 

(Warning...there is a photo of a bruised and swollen foot in this post!)

My Better Half 10k 2026

I wasn't going to run this race this year...it was too early to be my birthday race, and therefore it felt skippable. But photos of the shirt and medal changed my mind, and I quickly decided I could tack a couple miles onto the 10k and get a good, final long run out of it. 

I'm so glad I did.

Two weeks to go

Somehow, race day is less than two weeks away. Now's about the time I should be tapering and reflecting on my training cycle, but I'm sort of in denial that we're already here. I've run so many birthday races—it's a tradition I've truly grown to love, and my birthday just doesn't feel complete without it—but this is the first time I've chosen a destination race. 

The nature of a destination race means I've been thinking about it for a long time, because I've had to be picky about choosing it and proactive about planning travel. In fact, I first thought of running a destination race for my 40th when I turned 38, so I've been dwelling on this race (and this birthday) for years.

So it makes sense that I'm struggling to wrap my mind around the fact that in ten short days, I'll be in Arizona running in the desert and welcoming my 40s.

Coming up: the Orca Half

On September 21, Nick and I are running his first half marathon! Training has felt...spotty. I made the mistake of not writing down a specific plan on my calendar, so I was mostly keeping track of my workouts via Strava. As a result, I'm not actually sure how solid my training was! So, in an attempt to boost my confidence for race day, I'm looking back on the last few weeks to see how my training actually went.

I'm Training for a Half

Before the Snoqualmie River Valley 10k, I had planted the seed in Nick's brain that we should run a half marathon. He'd expressed interest in a 15k, but they're hard to find; and if you're going to run 9.3 miles, you might as well run 13.1. 

Snoqualmie Valley 10k Training Update

May was a weird month, somehow it's already mid-June, and given that the Snoqualmie Valley 10k is now a week away, I really wish the last few weeks had gone differently.

To race or not to race?

Next weekend, I've got the Running from Gluten 10k. I'm actually pretty excited because it's sponsored by the Celiac Guild and benefits the Seattle Children's Celiac Program. All the goodies at the finish line are gluten free! I've run many charity races, but none that ever impacted me so personally.

Anyway, I signed up for this 10k with the expectation to run it as a training run. With the Snoqualmie Valley 10k coming up in late June, I figured having a little extra incentive to ensure I actually worked up to 6 miles in training wouldn't hurt.

10k Training and Fitness Updates

After finishing our 5k earlier this month, Nick immediately signed up for the Snoqualmie Valley 10k and I, of course, agreed to join him. Despite having run dozens of them, the 10k is my least favorite race distance. But it is fun to have a race on the calendar that requires training, and it's really fun to watch another friend get sucked into the wonderful cult that is running.

A couple 5ks

Over the last few weeks, I've wrapped my head around my current struggle with running. For awhile there I really didn't miss it, and I began to think I may give it up entirely for the foreseeable future. But running is the only time I get to see Sarah, and I value the consistency of this little slice of socialization. I never regret a run after it's over. As I started fitting running back into my schedule, I remembered how much I love it, and then I genuinely did start to miss it. But I was still happy to cancel, secretly dancing with joy anytime Sarah had to back out, giving me an excuse to do the same. Why?

I think I might be training for a marathon

I can't seem to say it with conviction, but I'm pretty sure I'm marathon training.

Around mile 9 at Vancouver, I wrote off running completely. The next day, I acknowledged that was rash, but felt certain a marathon wasn't in my future, especially a hilly marathon. A few days after that, as my DOMS faded, I began to think that maybe Loch Ness wasn't out of the realm of possibilities.

Final training report: Vancouver Half

 

Race week is upon us!

When we signed up for the Vancouver Half, I had about nine weeks to train, and it felt like a short time even though I'd been sort-of training for a half since autumn of last year. Still, training didn't seem to click and feel real until March...really mid-March, if I'm being honest.

What is it about 9 miles?

Training for the Vancouver half has been going much better than the training-that-wasn't for my birthday race. Is it the better weather? The burden of the holiday season being a thing of the past? Matt's official swearing-in lifting the crushing anxiety from my shoulders? 

Oh yeah, that happened!

Who knows. Whatever the cause, training finally feels like it's going according to plan.

(Knock on wood.)

Decision time

Last time I posted a training update, I was feeling a little better about my upcoming half marathon. Since then, things have unraveled. I've made the hard decision to switch to the 10k.

MBHM training update

When I last posted about how training was going for the 2024 My Better Half Marathon, I was feeling pretty down. Still, I've been plugging away, so all things considered, I'm pretty happy with the progress I've made.

November blahs

I had high hopes for this training cycle, and I'm afraid I'm already letting myself down a bit. For a few weeks I was having the hardest time figuring out why I was struggling; I always cut down on my mileage in the summer and bounce back, what was going on?

Time to get serious

August is always my worst training month. I'm not a fan of relentless sun, and by August we've already gotten eight weeks of it. Sunrise is at like 5am in the summer, so beating the sun and getting in a cool run is nearly impossible. And yes, I understand the irony of these complaints considering I spent the first dozen years of my running "career" in Florida. But I've discovered the joy of chilly, rainy runs, and now I find myself resentful of the heat.

More leaves, less heat

So in July I tend to fall off my training, and by August I'm often barely doing anything. That's not great considering I need to shift from a rest-mindset into a super-focused-training mindset by September for my February half.

I'm baa-aack

 

In my last training post I was fighting an overwhelming feeling of defeat. June definitely didn't start how I wanted it to, but sometime midway through the month, things began to feel better.

I dove back in to both strength training and running simultaneously. Maybe this was dumb. Maybe I should have focused on running first and then added strength back in once my stamina had recovered. I'd definitely have avoided some intense DOMS! But honestly, jumping right back into my usual routine did wonders for my brain.

Feeling defeated

I'm trying not to, but I'm struggling to keep perspective right now. I put all my workouts on hold during fire academy so that I could adhere to a tight, inflexible schedule and take care of Zoe. I really only had so much bandwidth and I had to prioritize other things, and that was fine.

Matt graduated May 19, and I was ready to dive back into running. I literally scheduled my first run post-graduation in my calendar so I wouldn't miss it.