Just for kicks, I’m going to post my training leading up to the Harrisburg Marathon on November 9^th for those who might want to follow along. I’m still in base-building mode right now, so I’m running mostly easy miles with a tiny bit of intensity/speed thrown in. Here’s how last week shook out: Monday: 9 miles easy + Body Pump later at the gym

Tuesday: 10 miles easy

Wednesday: 5 miles recovery (a.m.), Core work at the Y, 6 miles w/speedwork (p.m.)

Thursday: 8 miles easy + Body Pump

Friday: Core work at the Y

Saturday: 14 miles (avg. pace 7:39) on a challenging route

Sunday: 8 miles recovery

Total miles: 60

The first part of the week was pretty non-eventful as I kept it easy and just focused on getting the miles in. On Thursday I woke up with legs that were a bit sore – more so than I’d anticipated! The speed work on Wednesday must have taken more out of them than I realized. I took it easy on Thursday’s morning run, but between that run and Body Pump later I knew I needed to take Friday off to let the legs rebound a bit in anticipation of a tougher Saturday run. I moved my off day to Friday, and was glad I did since Saturday’s long run was a doozy.

I knew it would be rough due to the temps (74 at the start, 78 at the end) and humidity, but I ran with my local speedy group and the planned route was...well, let's say "challenging" doesn't quite do it justice. We managed to find and run some of the steepest hills in Richmond - and also threw in the big Riverside Drive hills towards the end just for fun. I was definitely working pretty hard for most of this run, and was really happy to hear the beep for "one mile to go" on my watch. Splits were all over the place due to the hills, but effort was consistent. Tried to finish this up strong, and I am glad to have this one in the books.

Long run splits: 8:22, 7:52, 7:33, 7:16, 8:16, 7:50, 7:38, 7:41, 7:34, 7:49, 8:09, 7:39, 7:27, 7:03

That was my training week in review – how was your week?