Yesterday’s half marathon at my alma mater was a lot of fun! This is the fourth year for the race and I’ve ran it all four years. I plan to continue to run it as I want this to be my legacy race.

The morning temperature was a brisk 34 degrees and only warmed to the upper 30s by the finish a couple hours later. There was a slight breeze which made the trek across the bridge to Lafayette and back to West Lafayette a little more chilly, but luckily the sun was fully on you for both those sections to offset the windchill. Other than the lower temperature it was a beautiful day to run a race.

Of late I’ve been solely focused on my course work for my dissertation as I’m 19 months away from graduation which isn’t very long when considering a PhD. As a result my workouts have not included any runs over a 5K. However, I do hit the elliptical machine several days a week on a higher resistance for 60 minutes. I also do core work and lift weights. Additionally, I regularly get in longer walks of over an hour. While I would not suggest this for a new runner or anyone really I know I can handle 13.1 miles with this level of training. All that being said, I was amazed that my cardio was much stronger than a few of the other athletes running a similar pace. While you can never tell if someone else is dealing with an asthmatic condition or didn’t train well I could see that when I was running my pace up a hill (I didn’t train for hills) that the others were sucking air while I was barely breathing heavy. I really think this is a testament to interval training. Being able to do higher intensity work for short periods really does help the cardiovascular system in comparison to focusing on endurance only, but I digress.

If you are in the area then run the Purdue Boilermaker Half Marathon some October!  It’s a great race with a fun yet challenging course that includes some hills as well as a great tour of Purdue University and the surrounding community!

Happy Training!

Brian