Week Thirteen - Philadelphia Marathon Training
Monday - Rest day - 1 mile run
Tuesday - Intervals (15 minute warmup, 1k run at 10k pace, 90 second recovery X3, 3 min recovery, 1k run at 10k pace, 90 second recovery 3)
Wednesday - 45 min spin bike
Thursday - 25 min easy run, 20 min threshold pace, 25 min easy run
Friday - 30 min easy run
Saturday - Long Run - 2 1/2 hours
Sunday - 45 minute easy run
The week started out really good. Tuesday's intervals were really great and I hit the paces I would expect for a good 10k. Thursday, I was just not feeling it so I set out for the run prescribed but in reality, it was mostly an hour of easy running.
On Saturday, I had aspirations of doing a 20 mile training run in Philadelphia that had pace groups and water stops. We would have had to leave the house by 5am. We woke up at 4:30 and it was really hard to convince myself I should get up and then my husband said he didn't sleep well and asked if I really wanted to go. I could have gone alone but I hadn't planned parking or anything because I was expecting to be able to be dropped off and then he could deal with parking. We decided to bag it because neither of us felt like dealing with the logistics.
The weather was amazing so I did a long run myself at home late morning. It was going okay until the very end. I was within a tenth of a mile from home and I suddenly fell. I must have tripped over my own feet and I tried to catch myself, which I've successfully done many times but this time I totally wiped out. I got up quickly because I was embarrassed and I didn't want any cars to pull over. At first, everything hurt but once I got home cleaned up, I just have the heal of one hand cut and brush burned and one knee cut and brush burned. The cuts seem shallow so other than the shock of suddenly finding myself sprawled out in the shoulder of the road, I luckily don't have any real injuries.
All in all, even though I'm not hitting all of the runs as planned, I think this might be the closest I've followed a marathon training schedule or nearly the closest. A 20 mile group run really would have given me a confidence boost and I'm somewhat regretting missing that chance. There is a half marathon next week that's a very easy 45 minutes away and I will likely do it for the benefit of being in a group and the weather looks great.