Sometimes I struggle to figure out how to balance my food/recipe posts with my running/workout posts during the week. So, as I train for the Philadelphia half marathon at the end of November, I’ve decided to use Monday’s post as the weekly round-up of my workouts and how I stuck (or didn’t) to the training plan.

Ready?

Here’s what the plan for this week was supposed to look like:

Philadelphia half marathon training: week 1

Here’s what actually happened:

Philadelphia half marathon training: week 1

Not too shabby. It was week 1 so I was pretty diligent about sticking to the plan.

Monday:

Long run day. No excuses. I ran this at lunch time since it wasn’t really “long” and let’s just say I misjudged how hot it was outside. It was close to 80 degrees, I brought no water and I suffered through this run big time. I ended up finishing with a 9:12 average pace which isn’t horrible or anything but it was just a tough run mentally and physically.

Tuesday:

The basement gym area was still not put together enough after the flooding for me to do my NROLFW on Tuesday so I ended up pushing it to Wednesday. Stretching was done on the floor with Ginger basically on top of me the entire time.

Wednesday:

15 miles on the bike @14.4 mph average and NROLFW, not a bad day.

Thursday:

Oh, speed work. Thursday was freezing for September. I ran this outside with the help of my Garmin since the treadmill is dead and expected to hate this workout given the nature of it plus the cold. Turns out, it was a great speed work session and I ended up shaving off 30 seconds from my intended 400 pace with ease. Guess I set the bar too low there.

Friday:

Glorious rest day, enjoyed fully by celebrating our anniversary with some apple almond cake.

Saturday:

10.4 miles on the bike @14.3 mph average. I was supposed to do NROLFW (starting stage 3) but since I was planning to race on Sunday, I figured I would skip this to make sure I had fresh legs for the race. Well…

Sunday:

Woke up to the alarm at 6am and a house that was a chilly 65 and totally blew off the race. Sleep + a warm bed won out. This race was literally 5 minutes from my house but, they closed the road off an hour before the race started so I would’ve had to be at the start area more than an hour before just to sit there and wait. I’m really not a morning person, at all and that was just the icing on the cake. This is the first race I said I was going to do that I skipped and I felt incredibly guilty all morning. I blame the Catholic upbringing.

Anyway, I was still determined to get the mileage in so, around noon I set off on what I intended to be a fast 5K of my own. Check out these splits:

  • Mile 1: 7:59
  • Mile 2: 7:58
  • Mile 3: 7:57
  • Mile 3-3.1: 0:46 (7:00 pace)
  • Total: 24:36  <—NEW PR! (by 3 seconds)

5K PR

Moral of this story? I should’ve gotten my ass out of bed and raced! Serves me right.

Total Weekly Round-up:

  • Run: 11.6 miles
  • Bike: 25.7 miles
  • Strength training sessions: 1

What’s your opinion: does a PR count outside of a race?

What was your best workout last week?

Founder and Writer at Running to the Kitchen | About

Gina Matsoukas is an AP syndicated writer. She is the founder, photographer and recipe developer of Running to the Kitchen — a food website focused on providing healthy, wholesome recipes using fresh and seasonal ingredients. Her work has been featured in numerous media outlets both digital and print, including MSN, Huffington post, Buzzfeed, Women’s Health and Food Network.

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22 Comments

  1. Hey! So I’m stalking you from SR’s blog because you wrote about being Greek (and your crazy family arrange marriages). Mmmmeeee tooooo!

    Also, love the blog and NICE JOB on the 5k!