Philadelphia half marathon training week 6

Rosemary dijon roasted potatoes
Random thoughts & quinoa crack balls
Apple spice pancakes <—make these, they smell like cider donuts!

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As you might imagine, being sick kind of threw week 6 of training off a bit. Combine that with a really long day of work on Tuesday and a 6am 6 hour flight on Wednesday and you’ve got one c-r-a-p-p-y week of workouts. At least this was designed as a fall back week mileage wise, I just ended up falling back on pretty much everything instead of just mileage.

Previous training recaps:

The plan:

Reality:

Eeeek, that’s embarrassing to look at!

Monday:

Instead of moving on to 10 miles this week, I knew I’d be traveling and not have that sort of time, so I made this a fall back week for my long run. I ran a 9:03 average pace from my hotel all along the Bay Trail with views like this.

The weather was beautiful in San Francisco last week and this was a hot run because of it but I’m not complaining.

Tuesday:

Unintended rest day.

I had intentions to try and fit NROLFW in before the conference started but it didn’t happen. A long work day and knowing I had to be awake at 3:30am for my flight home the next day meant it didn’t happen after work either.

Wednesday:

Unintended rest day.

Got home from the airport at 6pm after 6 days away from home…yeah, workout not happening.

Thursday:

Pretty good 5 mile tempo run. A slight change in scenery from Monday to this.

Mile splits:

Mile 1: 8:40
Mile 2: 8:24
Mile 3: 8:24
Mile 4: 8:30
Mile 5: 9:14

While the splits look good, this run got me worried. It was tough to keep that pace in the middle of this run and all I kept thinking was how the heck I’m going to do that for 13 miles when it felt so hard for 3! My only goal for Philly is to beat my previous PR (1:57:16) and now I’m starting to freak out about it a bit because that course was completely FLAT. The only increase in elevation was the speed bumps we ran over in the residential communities. I know this is not the case in Philly and I don’t feel much faster than last year. I’m not sure if I should mentally just accept that and lower my expectations or if I should work even harder to get faster in these next 4 weeks. Thoughts?

Friday:

Planned rest day turned low key cross training in the form of Yoga Meltdown.

I haven’t done this DVD in probably 6 months or so and my arms let me know that the next day after all those chaturanga pushups!

Saturday:

Unintended rest day.

Felt like death, no question at all to take the day off.

Sunday:

Unintended rest day.

I was supposed to run 4 miles at “pace.” This was a tough decision because I probably could’ve pushed myself and run but I decided it was better to rest up in hopes that I’ll feel well enough to get my long run in today. I did take a nice 3 mile walk instead to enjoy some fresh air and it reaffirmed the fact that I shouldn’t have run because I was out of breath just walking up a hill! <—not normal!

Obviously, this week was super unimpressive. I guess it’s better to be sick now than in 4 weeks though so I’m just going to try and forget it and look forward.

Total Weekly Round-up:

Run: 10 miles
Bike: 0 miles
Strength training sessions: 1 (I’m counting Yoga Meltdown)

Do you workout when you’re sick?

What are your thoughts on the PR situation?

What was your best workout last week?

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