Milwaukee Marathon Half Marathon Training Week 13 Recap

Once again, I was coming off a weekend of being sick.  Two weeks in a row!  Instead of diving right back into the plan, I amended my plan to ease back into the toughest weeks of training. I opted to do the strength workout instead of the tempo, which admittedly I decided solely because I like the strength workouts and I hate the tempos.  I tried pushing my long run a bit towards the fastest end of my prescribed long run window (7:30 - 9:00).  Other than that, I just tried to run easy.  I also ended up running 5 days instead of 6.   I have been toying with cutting out a day of running for a few weeks.  I decided to do 5 days this week because it worked well with my busy schedule this week AND I figured my body could use an extra day of rest after the last two weeks!

I look back at this week and it makes me smile.  Right now (Sunday night), I feel pretty good.  My legs are tired but I don't feel like I'm on the verge of sleep like I have been in the weeks prior.

Monday, September 4
Plan says: Rest

What I do:  I had a dull headache on Monday still and just felt off still from the weekend migraine so I took the day off.

Tuesday, September 5
Plan says: Easy 6

What I do:  It felt really really good to run, even though I felt a little off and still had a bit of a headache.  Managed to get an easy paced 10K in.

6.2 miles, 51:22 (8:17 avg pace).

Wednesday, September 6
Plan says: 1.5 mile warm up, 3 x 2 miles at 10K pace (0.5 miles jog in-between), 1.5 miles cool down

What I do:  Alright it was go time.  Time to do the one fast workout I was going to do this week.  This felt AMAZING.  Seriously.  I was flying and feeling good.  I zoomed past the high school cross country team on their practice.  "Old Lady on your left!"

Goal pace is 6:34.

1.5 mile warm up 11:44 (7:49 avg pace)

2 miles, 13:03 [6:25, 6:30] (6:30 avg pace) / 0.5 miles 4:11.5 (8:25 avg pace)
2 miles, 13:08 [6:36, 6:28] (6:33 avg pace) / 0.5 miles 4:20.3 (8:42 avg pace)
2 miles, 12:45 [6:20, 6:24] (6:22 avg pace)

1.5 mile cool down, 12:19 (8:13 avg pace)

I had to do this same workout twice during my marathon training, so you KNOW I was curious.

Two mile repeats on April 10:
13:42
13:43
13:49

Two mile repeats on April 24
13:24
13:10
13:27

Granted, my goal pace for the 2 mile repeats during marathon training was 7:05, not 6:34.  Just typing that seems insane.

Thursday, September 7
Plan says: 6 miles easy

What I do:  I slept in on Thursday, which meant I was running after work before the bus, which meant that unless I sprinted, I wasn't getting 6 miles in.  I did log 4.52 miles.

4.52 miles 36:41.2 (8:07 avg pace).

Friday, September 8
Plan says: Off

What I do:  This day was my daughter's birthday and she wanted doughnuts for breakfast.  I was up early but not to run - to go get doughnuts! We went to see Wicked right after work/school so no run, and I was out until after midnight.  SO TIRED!

1.5 mile warm up 12:53 (8:36)
4 miles, 27:33 (6:53 avg, mile splits = 7:03, 6:59, 6:45, 6:44)
1.5 mile cool down 11:44 (7:49)

Saturday, September 9
Plan says: 10-12 miles

What I do:  The official plan said 10 miles, but I wanted to see if I could do a bit more if I was feeling good.  My husband let me sleep in until 8 AM which was awesome.  I ended up doing this run after lunch.  I didn't want to do this too fast, but I did want to be closer to the 7:30 end of my long run pace since I skipped a tempo run this week.  I was happy with this run.  After the first mile, I was in 7:30 range for the remainder of the miles and it felt decent.

11.02 miles, 1:23:14 (7:33 avg pace)

Sunday, September 10
Plan says: easy 6

What I do:  I got up early and headed out the door.  First run of fall where I needed a long sleeve shirt for the entire run.  (Funny because I did Saturday's run in a crop top and shorts.)  My legs definitely felt tired, even with my compression socks.  I finally started loosening up around mile 6 (!) so I decided to go the extra mile, literally.

7.2 miles, 1:00:37 (8:25 avg pace)

Amended Plan Miles: 38
Total Weekly Miles: 38.94 (seriously wish I would have calculated that before hand so I would have ran an extra 0.06 miles!)