Week 5 Marathon Training

Week 5 was a tough one. I had a super short work-week and was in vacation mode. With a half marathon planned for Sunday, I was going to continue to follow my training plan as scheduled and run the race as a training run. I think I was in denial about the race. I had run the Mad Half before, and knew the hills were killer, but ultimately I think I was in denial because all week I wasn't nervous at all for the race. So with that, here's how the week went.

• Monday: Rest
• Tuesday: 3 solo miles before work and bodypump at lunch
• Wednesday: I was off and ended up being lazy all morning and put off running until noontime and it was so hot! Alice and I made it 6 miles.
• Thursday: 4th of July. No running but I did drink more than my share of beer
• Friday: I was off again and again waited too long. I ended up running 3 miles solo in 28 minutes, which I'm proud of. My training plan doesn't have specific speed work besides "pace" runs on Saturdays so I'm throwing it in here and there. I followed a 1 min hard, 1 min easy, 2,2,3,3,etc. plan for this run. It actually made the time fly by (I know it was only 3 miles but it was 90+ degrees).
• Saturday: 5 miles with Alice, again way too late in the day. It was so freaking hot.
• Sunday: The Mad Half! It ended up being a really (really, really) tough race. At mile 6 I thought I was going to have my first DNF. At this point, Melissa and I were on par to have a 2:45 (eek) finish. We ended up pulling a 2:17, which I was thrilled with. This race is so challenging and the hills in the beginning eat you up.

Waiting for the gun to go off

So happy to be done and shocked I finished

So there it is, week 5 with a total of 30 miles. This is a step down week and I'm happy to have shorter runs on tap all week. Here's to week 6!