Half marathon training – Week 7 – The week before

First things first, my PhD defence is this coming Friday June 5. That means that I spent most of last week working through my list of dissertation edits and trying not to have a nervous breakdown. So far I’ve been successful on both fronts.

Thursday’s tempo run was tough but that’s nothing new. Looking back at it now the splits actually look pretty good but that second mile was a battle. I’m going to go ahead and blame my perceived lack luster performance on coming off a restless night’s sleep and low blood sugar (I run first thing in the morning and can only stomach a small banana before I hit the road).

I was so exhausted by the end of the week that after work on Friday I took a two hour nap before dinner. Then I slept for 8.5 hours that night. That seemed to do the trick because Saturday’s long run went pretty well. I chose a somewhat hilly route and just pounded it out. I even turned things on and did the last mile in 9:20! Sunday’s run was a true recovery run as I took things very easy and tried to work out some lingering soreness.

25/05	5.0 mi	Easy run: avg 9:49 min/mile
26/05	-	Rest Day
27/05	6.0 mi	Tempo run: 4mi @ 8:25/8:41/8:25/8:20 min/mile
28/05	5.0 mi	Easy run: avg 9:40 min/mile
29/05	-	Rest day
30/05	11.0 mi	Easy run: avg 9:49 min/mile
31/05	4.0 mi	Recovery run: avg 10:18 min/mile
Total	31.0 mi	YTD: 546.9 miles

Tomorrow kicks off what I am referring to as Defence Week. Wish me luck!