Hamburg Half | Week 11

Half Marathon Training
Via DailyMile

Well, wouldn’t you know? After my Week 9 comeback post, I came down with a miserable cold, and I had to take a week off of running.  If I had properly trained up until that point, it wouldn’t have been too big of an issue.  (Heck, I even PR’d my last 10K with a cold!)  But without a solid base of training to rely on, I really have no illusions about doing anything except having fun at next week’s race.

So to be able to do that, I cut out all speed work in my training plan — so as not to overstress my body as I recovered from my cold — and just concentrated on getting my mileage in.  (Just like the old days, I guess.)

  • Monday: rest
  • Tuesday, strength training: I’ve become a fan of this core routine for runners — the dozen exercises only take 20 minutes, but hits all the major core muscles important to runners.
  • Wednesday, 5 miles: Low-key run. Left the watch at home and just concentrated on getting the miles in.
  • Thursday: rest
  • Friday, 3 miles: Relaxed pace.
  • Saturday, strength training: Another runner’s dozen.
  • Sunday, 10 miles: I was pretty nervous about this run, but I prepped well for it and felt pretty strong for at least the first two-thirds.  The rest I had to push myself through, but even that wasn’t too painful, thank god.

While, of course, I wish my training for this half had turned out differently, I’m still going to take what I have and give it my best.  It is, after all, supposed to be a birthday celebration of sorts — I want to enjoy myself!  I still have a couple of runs planned for this week, but they’ll mostly be low key so that I can be well rested on race day.  Wish me luck!

More posts about training for the Hamburg Half:

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