Half Marathon PR Quest – Week 5

My back feels normal again and I’m so relieved. I was pretty sure once I realized that moving and running made it feel better, rather than worse, that it must be muscular. Since it took about a week to feel 100%, I’m certain it was just a strained muscle.

It did make me nervous, if only because it was a reminder that you never know what life’s going to throw at you – acute injuries happen, life stuff happens and when it does, you just have to accept that all your training and planning might go kaput. But for now – back on track and feeling great about this week’s training:

Here’s how my week went:

Monday: Strength training session. I took it easy with the weight, just to be on the safe side, but it felt good to be in the gym.

Tuesday: Off

Wednesday: This was the Vo2Max workout I was panicking about last week. Allie (who is an amazing athlete) told me it would be more fun than something to dread and I hoped she was right! It was a warm up, followed by six 2-minute repeats at a 7:00 pace, with 1 minute jog recovery intervals, then a cool down run. The first three repeats were great – I was hitting the pace and not feeling like I was going to die. The last three were definitely much harder. In fact, the last repeat I really thought I was running at about 6:45 because that’s what the effort level felt like. It turned out that last one was at a 7:19 pace, but I was happy about that because I knew I really gave the workout my all.

Thursday: Off

Friday: 40 minute recovery run

Saturday: 2 hour run. I took this easier than I’ve been running the long runs, because I was feeling sluggish and decided just to listen to my body. I ended up running pretty slowly, at an average 9:22 pace.

Sunday: 40 minutes on the elliptical.

I also rolled out and did some stretches nearly every day last week, to keep the blood flowing to my muscles and help with recovery. Check in tomorrow when I share a few exercises I used to relieve the pain from my muscle strain.

 

Total Miles for Week: 24

 

Who I’m running for:

David’s House offers support and somewhere to stay for families of children receiving treatment through the Children’s Hospital at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center. It was founded by the family of David Cyr, a little boy who passed away at age 5, after battling cancer for 3 1/2 years. David lived close to the hospital. When he realized that other families couldn’t go home to sleep and shower and eat – that they had to sleep in chairs, in hospital rooms – he wanted his parents to invite them to come stay at his house. After his death, his family founded David’s House, to realize his dream. Families can sleep, shower, relax, prepare meals and have one less thing to worry and think about while their little ones are being treated nearby. I’m proud to be running 13.1 miles for this charity.