Philadelphia Half Marathon Training Week 7

Sorry for the late posting! Grad school is totally kicking my butt lately-- but I kinda like it :) Let's take a look back at half marathon training for Week 7...

Previously: Week 1, Week 2, Week 3, Week 4, Week 5, Week 6

After running the Big House Big Heart 10K last Sunday, I wasn't sure what to do about my long run. Should I do another, just a few days after the 10K? Skip it entirely? I ended up making my workouts up a little on the fly, but it worked out.

M- 4m arboretum run
T- strength training
W- 8x400m @8:00min/mi pace, with w/u and c/d for 3 miles
R- 5m hill run
F- yoga
S- 3m trails
S- off
total: 15 miles 


While my overall mileage was a little lower last week, I definitely got in more quality workouts. Wednesday I hit the track for a speed session with 400m repeats. I felt awesome after! Then Thursday I tackled one of my hilliest routes today and rocked it out.

Often times I'll run a flat or net downhill route because it's a lot easier. But I find that I don't get as good of a workout, or improve as much as I should week to week. With the race drawing closer (less than 5 weeks!) I'm going to make a conscious effort to focus on my training. In short, 15 miles of hard workouts > 20 miles of flat routes!

And with that, I'm off for another week of classes, work and running in Ann Arbor. There's a microbiology conference at UM this weekend, so I'm working round the clock to get ready. My lab bench tells all:

complete insanity.

happy running and studying!

***Shout-out to all of my friends who rocked 13.1, 26.2 or otherwise this weekend! Including: Linnea, Clare, David H, Keith W, Ariell, Mallory, Pat, Corinne and Ann Marie! What a bunch of champions :)