Philadelphia Half Marathon Training: Week 1

Since finishing the 2013 Boston Marathon mildly over-trained and on the verge of a spate of illnesses, my running has been sporadic at best. I've documented all the issues that lead up to the 2014 Boston Marathon, but it's worth noting that I stopped really enjoying taking part in the sport about two years ago.  Sure, there had been flashes of competitiveness and drive, but mostly weeks of grinding out joyless miles and workouts without any continuity or flow.  During that time, I ran a couple of sub-par races and often wondered if maybe it was time to run for a different reason and let go of PR dreams.  However, over the past month or so, the bug has returned.  My health is back and with pre-hab and a couple of tweaks to the mileage and intensity of my early 20s, I seem to be staving off injury. After completing (and enjoying) my most recent sub-par race, I decided the fix to my stressed relationship with running may instead be re-establishing some structure and actually putting a goal race on the calendar.

Last week, I started a 10 week training plan for the Rock n' Roll Philly Half Marathon on September 21st. Realistically, I don't think a PR is possible at this point, but a respectable performance is not out of the question.  The random workouts I was doing in the spring were mostly focused on speed and as a result, my aerobic capacity is greatly diminished.  So, the goal of this abbreviated training cycle will be to get my body used to running at goal half marathon pace (5:30?).  Weekly mileage will stay between 60-75 with one day off every two weeks.  And while the paces on the workouts look easy, the number of intervals are where the challenge lies. I'll also be getting used to working out in the late morning during the heat of the summer.  With my work schedule, this is my only option and I will have to adjust paces and expectations accordingly. Another major change in this cycle is the limited use of the Garmin.  I could write an entire blog on how I've gone from loving the GPS to hating the GPS, but let's just say it will only be used on tempo runs.

Week 1
Monday: 6 miles easy in Central Park, 30 minutes of core.

Tuesday: 12 miles total; 8 x 1K @ 3:17-3:20 with 200m jog (60s) at Riverbanks Track

Wednesday: 8 miles easy in Central Park, 30 minutes of core.

Thursday: 8 miles easy in Central Park (meant to do 7 but was daydreaming and ran too far)7x20 sec. strides

Friday: 13.64 miles (wore Garmin) 90 minute medium long run with middle 5 miles at 5:54, 5:59(Harlem Hill), 5:58(WS Hills), 5:57, 5:48, 5:57.

Saturday: 9.5 miles in the rain in Staunton, VA.  I got lost.

Sunday: 15.6 mile very hilly long run in Staunton, VA.  

Total Weekly Mileage: 72.7 

Notes: *On days following workouts, it took about 3 miles to really loosen up. 
           *Running too far on Thursday is a good thing.  It has been a long time since I got so lost in thought on an easy run that I totally lost track of time and place. 
           *This was my highest total mileage since mid-February when I was training for Boston.
           *I ran every single mile solo this week.  Such is the life.