The Hamburg Half Marathon — one of my two major races planned for 2013 — is practically around the corner, so I have the pleasure of starting my training while in Oslo!  I’ll be following a 3Plus2 training plan (3 days of running and 2 days of cross-training per week, which I loved when training for the Bremen 10K).  For Hamburg though, I’ll be modifying the half marathon plan to last 12 instead of 16 weeks, and I’m changing some of the weekly mileage to fit what I know my body can handle without injury.

Ahem, speaking of injury. While walking on some ice before Easter, I slipped and fell hard on my tailbone.  Everything’s a-ok for the most part with normal activities, but I’m going to have to be extra careful easing into my training plan.  Here’s how it went…

• Monday: Rest.
• Tuesday, speed workout:  Or not really.  The plan for the treadmill was a 10-minute warm up, 8 x 400m at 2:09 each, and a 10-minute cool down. I aced the warm up and 3 x 400m, but the faster pace just killed my lower back and was really too painful to consider continuing with.  So I slowed down and ran until I hit 5 kilometers total.
• Wednesday, cross-training: A 45-minute workout on the fitness bike, for a total of 11 miles.  Is it even worth counting the miles on the fitness bike?  I can’t tell if it’s relevant to real outdoor mileage. Threw in some tempo work to keep things entertaining.
• Thursday, cross-training: Another 45-minute workout on the fitness bike, again for a total of 11 miles.
• Friday, tempo run: After Tuesday’s run, I decided to forgo the tempo part completely and just do the 5 miles on the treadmill at an easy, even pace of 10:40.  Smart decision and I was able to get my miles in without causing any pain, even if it wasn’t exactly a tempo run.
• Saturday: Rest.
• Sunday, “long” run:  6 miles at a 12:24 pace.  I gave the path around the lake another shot, and turns out it was a big improvement from two weeks ago.  But there were still a lot of icy patches that made me slow down and walk, so overall it was slow-going, but still lovely to be outside.  

So, there you have it.  Not exactly the burst of power I had wanted to kick off my training with, but for now I need to think of my speed workouts as “bonuses” and focus mostly on just getting the mileage in.  Hamburg, here I come!

Congratulations to all those runners out there today in the Berlin Half Marathon, the Cherry Blossom, and countless other races!  You rocked it!