In summary, this week went from a low to a high and back down to a low.
I woke up on Monday extremely sore. I decided it was better if I took the day off instead. I also got a deep tissue massage.
Tuesday was just an easy run. I still felt sore.
Workout Wednesday: Normally on Wednesdays I do a workout. Whether it’s 400 or mile repeats, I do something. I had a lot of things to do on Wednesday, and my motivation was at a low. I realized there was a 5k on base, and since I had no motivation anyways, I decided just to run it. To be honest, if I hadn’t, I doubt I would have done any speed. It was windy, and I had heavy legs, but I was still able to run a 19:23 which I’m very happy with.
Thursday and Saturday I ran easy and Friday I rested.
On Sunday, I ran the Philadelphia Half Marathon. I finished in 1:25 which is a progression from where I have been racing…however, to be honest, I’m disappointed with the race. If I ran a better race, I might have been faster. In summary, I ended up running an 18:59 first 5k, 39:21 10k and then slowed down a lot. You can’t race a half marathon like a 5k I guess. Bad races are all part of the game and I’ll have a recap of it sometime this week.
| Monday: | Rest and Deep tissue massage | |
| Tuesday: | Easy Run | |
| Wednesday: | Base 5k (19:23) | Core |
| Thursday: | Easy Run | |
| Friday: | Rest | |
| Saturday: | Easy Run | |
| Sunday: | Philadelphia Half Marathon (1:25.00) | |
| Total mileage: | 59 miles |
Thoughts:
I’m disappointed with how Philadelphia went. Unless it’s a marathon, there are very few races I’ve wanted to be over as soon as possible.  It caused my week of training to end on a sour note. At the end of the day, I’m healthy and injury free and that is definitely the most important part.  Looking back I can see my legs were heavy and tired the majority of the week.  That probably played a role in Philadelphia as well.
With Thanksgiving next week, my training will be scattered but I’m honestly not that concerned. I’ll do a turkey trot or two for speed workouts.
This week was all over the place from highs to lows to turkeys…
Questions for you:
Have you had a bad race recently?
How are you planning to cook your Thanksgiving Turkey?
Do you ever take a longer taper before a half? A few days rest before the race? This has always seemed to help me.
My last bad race was a half back in June. I train on hills all the time, and this race was completely flat. My hips and knees were killing me about halfway into it. No fun! I’m planning on eating turkey but not cooking any. Thank goodness for families that can cook!
My last bad race was wildwood half
By the 10th mile my knee and legs cramped up,ididnt put to much long runs in before this half,
So I paid the price
Not cooking this year but I did last 4 years.
I definitely had a rough race this past weekend as well. The wind and the cold made it tougher mentally and I was wishing it was over sooner too. Of course, I went out too fast as always. I’m sure it’s also hard to get out of the 5k mindset since you’ve been racing them so much! But as you said, we all have our bad races and we improve from them. I’m sure you’ll get that half PR sooner rather than later!
I am in possession of my first ever whole turkey, too, though I got it from Shoprite free, not a race. Would love to hear how you end up cooking yours!
that sounds almost exactly like how my training has felt except you are way faster than me. Im sorry you were disappointed with your training week, you’ve had so many great ones I guess it was time. why cant all training weeks be fantastic!
Congrats on another two great times, even though you don’t seem too happy. Maybe a couple of 10K races would help with your racing over the longer distances? All the 5K races are extremely fast, and it’s hard to keep that pace up for 13.1 miles…
My only terrible race was my first (and only so far) half marathon. But when you go from wheelchair bound to 13.1 miles all in one training cycle it’s prob going to hurt like hell on race day. :/
Holy moly, that is incredible Devin.
You need to go low to get high again. It’s rough that your heavy legs carried over to the half, but races happen when they happen, so hopefully next time it’s a better all around week for you. Next week will probably get better, for sure!
That is so true and a great reminder. We cannot always be at our highest points, thank you.
That’s still a really impressive half marathon time! I’ve had a few pace runs recently that have just felt like a huge struggle. Yesterday I was pretty much dying, but I hit a pace i was happy with and had minimal pain in my injured feet, so that’s better than nothing!
Glad to hear you hit the pace you wanted Pippa. Thank you so much for stopping by!
Yep, the highs are high and the lows are low. I felt kind of like a jerk after Philly because my first thought was, “OK, so this happened. Now what?” I’m taking it really easy this week, a.k.a doing no physical activity for seven days. It’s been pretty OK so far. 🙂 Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family, Hollie!
I completely understand with that and you too Carrie.