Philadelphia half marathon training week 8

I wish I had realized the date of the marathon when making my training schedule because I would’ve loved to have had a long run on tap yesterday with all the energy I got from watching the race. I’ve never had any ambition to run a full marathon (13.1 is hard enough!) but after yesterday, I can’t say the thought didn’t cross my mind. I’m sure it will be gone by the end of the week, don’t worry.

Onto week 8. 2 more weeks until the big day!

Previous recaps:

Plan:

Reality:

Monday:

I was still set on making up my missed mileage from the previous week (which faded out later in the week) so I hoped on the treadmill for 4 miles, constantly switching the speeds between 6.5-7.0 to keep myself entertained. I planned on 5, but only made it to 4. A decent run though all in all.

Tuesday:

This was the most interrupted long run I’ve had for a few reasons. This was one of them.

Hopping trees and sludging through snow definitely make for an interesting 11 miles. See that snow on the right? That was a bridge on the bike trail that goes over a creek. The rest of the trail wasn’t that bad. It made me think of those “bridge ices before roadway” signs on the highway. Apparently, that’s true.

The other reasons were a combination of texts, phone calls and emails that all required immediate responses (the downfall of using your iphone as an ipod.) But, it was still a great run. My times were interesting. I ran 2 miles from my house to the trail, 7 miles on the trail and 2 miles back home. Average pace on the roads without a snowy/treefallen obstacle course: 8:40. Average pace on the trail: 9:00. I ended the run with an 8:55 pace and felt great. I also wasn’t nearly as sore the following days as I was after 10, weird.

Wednesday:

Jillian and I have rekindled our love (we were going strong last fall) so I did a Yoga Meltdown workout and a lot of stretching.

Thursday:

More Jillian in the form of 30 Day Shred. It’s funny, even with a pretty consistent NROLFW strength training plan recently, my arms are still aching from this workout and I was only using 5lb weights!

Friday:

REST

Saturday:

The bike trail was finally cleared and melted so I headed out for a 5 mile tempo run. Felt awesome after this.

Splits:

8:48
8:27
8:20
8:17
9:04

Sunday:

12 mile slower bike ride with mom.

Total Weekly Round-up:

Run: 20
Bike: 12
Strength: 2

I’m psyched to have finally hit 20 miles this week! Also, you may have noticed I didn’t do any NROLFW. I’m thinking about not starting stage 4 until after the race. I don’t need any injuries from lifting and my goal right now is to finish this half strong (hopefully PR.) I’d been finding it difficult to feel completely “recovered” from my long runs with NROLFW in the mix as well so right now I think some Jillian Michaels DVDs are a better fit for mid week “strength training.” And lastly, I’m really hoping this is nothing, but I woke up on Friday with a slight “tingle” under my left knee cap. I wouldn’t really call it pain right now but it just feels slightly off. It didn’t hurt while running on Saturday but when I’m not, I can feel it. Anyone know what that could be? I’m scared to google it and have so far held out from internet diagnosing myself because I tend to fear the worst in all situations like this.

Have you ever dealt with knee pain?

Did you watch the NYC marathon?

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