I've officially crossed the halfway point of this training cycle, which is super exciting. I can definitely tell my cardiovascular endurance has increased. Longish runs feel not that hard, and even my harder and faster runs don't leave me as winded as the early weeks of training. 

What's less exciting is the absolute miserable conditions I've had to train in over the last two weeks. 

At the start of week 5, DC got hit with a massive snow/ice storm. We got like three inches of ice on top of six inches of snow, and the mess was so messy that DC coined the term "snowcrete" to describe what was left behind. A mix of snow and ice that's so heavy and impossible to move it may as well be concrete. 

On top of that, we've got unseasonably cold temperatures and windchills that make training outside a real treat. And outside is my only option since I don't have access to a treadmill. So yes, it's been a real adventure these last two weeks trying to find sidewalks that are sort of cleared and piling layers on layers so I don't get frostbite on my exposed skin. 

I skipped a handful of workouts because the conditions were just makings things tough, but here's what I managed.

Week 5:

No running until Wednesday, when I found quarter mile-ish section of sidewalk in my neighborhood that was cleared. I ran loops of that for 45 minutes. It was about as exciting as you'd imagine. 

By my Friday long run, a little bit more sidewalk had been cleared! I could combine the quarter mile loop with a half mile out and back! Did endless lollipops for 70 minutes. 

Only got in two runs, but was honestly glad I managed to get in any at all. 

Week 6:

I had to push the start of week six because my husband was out of town, and there's no way I could run with my kiddo in the stroller on Sunday. There's no clear sidewalks and it's just way too cold.

So I did a progression run on Monday. Started in heart rate zone two and worked up to zone 4 by the end. Felt really good during this workout, despite the cold and needing to run my same silly lollipop course over and over on repeat. 

Had big plans for the rest of the week since the temperatures were finally going to get above freezing, but I got a cold and some rough fatigue that knocked me out for most of the week. 

I rebounded for my long run, and imagine my joy when even more sidewalk was cleared! Now the out and back portion was a little over a mile! Still super monotonous when you've got 80 minutes of running on the agenda, but at least it was some slightly new scenery. 

And that's how two cold and rough weeks of training ended. Far from ideal, but I was happy to at least have managed one harder run and one long run each week. 

The forecast over the next couple of weeks is going to have us up in the 40s, and I'm really hoping that means we'll get some more significant melting. I'm in desperate need of some variety on my running routes. I need these sidewalks to clear!

I've officially made it through the first month of half marathon training, and I managed to fit in every workout in my training plan. There were plenty of times I had to get creative with the schedule and shift things around to accommodatemy husband's work schedule and childcare, but I got it done. 

Weeks three and four were cold, but manageable, except for the long run from week four. That fell right before the massive snow/ice storm that hit DC and was quite unpleasant. 

Week Three Recap

Sunday started with a tempo run with the jogging stroller. Nothing like starting the week off with a hard run while pushing an extra 60 pounds. Didn't have any trouble hitting the prescribed hard heart rate zones in this one, but did have a hard time keeping my heart rate at an easy enough level in the warm up and cool down. Celebrated with treats for both of us afterward. 

Monday was a 45-minute easy run, which felt delightful after Sunday's run. 

Tuesday was full body strength training followed by another dreadful hill workout on Wednesday. Hill sprints are just torture for me. 

Thursday was a rest day and Friday was my long run -- only 50 minutes, so still not super long. 

Week Four Recap

Week four was a cut back week and mentally it was just what I needed. The first part of January felt like a real sprint at work with everyone "circling back" after the holidays. So I was so glad to have a week of slightly shorter runs. Something about a 30-minute run just feels mentally so much easier than a 40-minute run.

Also we potty trained over the weekend between weeks 3 and 4, so I was glad to have shorter runs since it meant I wasn't gone for quite as long during the holiday weekend. 

Sunday was a tempo run, but sans stroller, I had to push a lot harder to get my heart rate into the appropriate zones for the hard sets. 

Monday was a 30-minute easy run. 

Tuesday was a rest day and Wednesday was just regular sprints! I hope that means evil hill sprints are behind me. 

I was able to squeeze in another long run on a Friday without too much schedule disruption or early morning wake ups because it was only 40 minutes. Have I mentioned I love a cut back week. It was in the teens on this run though and I had on so many layers I'm not sure how I managed to run. 

I also threw in a day of strength training somewhere in there, but I couldn't tell you what day it was at this point. 

I had debated pulling up a tempo run from week five and tackling it on Saturday since I knew the snowstorm that was coming was going to prevent me from running for a couple of days. But I woke up Saturday morning and my legs were feeling pretty heavy, so I didn't do that. Didn't seem worth it to risk an injury.

 Four weeks down, 8 more to go. 

After years of injuries, pregnancy complications, almost dying in child birth, the longest postpartum recovery ever and the slow, slow build to get some of my running endurance back, I am finally training for a half marathon. 

I haven't run one since 2021 -- nearly 4.5 years.

It's hard to believe it's been that long.

I spent most of 2022 dealing with hip and hamstring stuff. I graduated from PT in the early days of my pregnancy. 

And I ran until my 20-week appointment when they found a serious complication, and I was forbidden from anything strenuous. 

I thought I'd get back to running fairly quickly after my child was born. I spent enough time researching how to heal from C-sections and did a million core stabilizing exercises in the early days to rebuild strength. 

But then more complications, more surgeries, more recovery time and suddenly we're deep in 2024 before I'm physically able to run, and I'm back at work and still nursing and juggling all that.  Trying to train for anything was a big no for me. 

And that brings us to the end of last year.  I ran 3 races in October -- two 5Ks and a 10K -- none of which I managed to blog about. I felt like I was finally coming out of some of the fog and trauma that 2025 unleashed, and had found some of my running endurance again. 

It was the longest rebuild ever, but I finally felt ready to dive into half marathon training. 

So here we are, two weeks in and still feeling good about my decision to sign up. I'm following the same training plan I followed for the races I ran in 2021. It's a plan based on heart rate, which I found last time really helped me focus on keeping easy runs easy and hard runs hard. It also helped me recover better and keep most injuries at bay. 

I do four runs and a couple of strength sessions each week. 

Week 1 Recap

Week 1 was a little bit of a mess because it was the week between Christmas and New Years, and I had travel at both ends of the week. 

I had to get real creative with the workouts and shifted things around a lot. 

The first two runs were at my parents' house on their treadmill because there was ice on the ground. The first workout was a hard hill run, which honestly the treadmill is great for. The second was an easy steady state run. 

When I got back home, I took a rest day and then had another hard workout and my "long run" for the week on back to back days. This worked only because my long run was only 40 minutes. So I squished a week's worth of running into five days instead of seven with my travel. 

Not ideal, but I was proud that I fit all the workouts in. It felt important to set that kind of tone the first week. 

Week 2 Recap

The second week was a little bit better. I largely followed the training program as it was laid out. 

Sunday was a hard tempo run, which I did with the running stroller for an extra challenge (and because taking my kid was the only way the run was going to happen).

Monday was a steady state run and some strength training. 

Tuesday was a rest day, which was so needed because I could definitely tell I was getting sore.

Wednesday was a killer hill workout. I hate hill workouts so much. But I'm trying to keep it together and not start skipping them yet, like I know I likely will as motivation wanes during later training weeks. Conveniently there is a pretty steep and long hill close to my house, so I did an easy warm up and then did 90 second sprints up the hill with a two-minute recovery in between. I was sucking wind by the end.

Thursday was more rest and Friday was a my long run because my husband had to work the weekend, and I didn't want to have to do a stroller run for a long, slow, easy run. Nothing about running with the stroller is easy. 

Overall the first two weeks of training were really solid. As I look ahead, I can already tell I'm going to have to keep getting creative with my schedule to accommodate some more weekends that my husband has to work and some random appointments and other commitments we already have on the calendar. I'm super glad for the running stroller. I suspect there will be plenty of times I'll need to use it to ensure my runs get done. 

Flexibility is also key to any training plan, but I think this time more than ever, I'm going to have to be adaptable, shift workouts, and find a true love for the pitch black, very cold early mornings to make sure I can fit everything in.