Week 9 was race week and it also happened to be recovery week in my plan. The schedule was only 13 miles for the weekend which worked out perfectly for the Encinitas Half (everyone in my running group running M2B has the same long run schedule, though we do get individual weekly training plans). I went into this week expecting more recovery than I got when I opened the email with my weekly schedule from my coach. I even emailed him back and said “Did you forget I’m running the Encinitas Half Marathon on Sunday!?” He had even put a long run (though shorter) on Saturday, but I politely told him that I can only be away from the family one weekend day so he said it was fine to skip it.
Becuase it was recovery week and I didn’t have any challenge groups going on, I just did whatever cross training/strength training that felt right. It ended up not being much! PS don’t forget that my next FREE 10 Day Bootcamp is coming up on April 3rd! You’ll want to get signed up ASAP to get ready to start Monday! Get more info and sign up with this link: FREE 10 Day Bootcamp.
Here’s how the week went:
Monday: 6 mile tempo run. The workout was 6 miles with 30 minutes continuous of 2 minutes fast, 1 minute MGP, 1 min fast, 30 sec MGP, 30 sec fast, 30 sec MGP. Fast = 1/2 pace for the first 15 minutes and 10k pace for the second 15 minutes. If I remember right, the average pace for the tempo ended up around 7:50 (too lazy to go upstairs and get my garmin to find out). I ran this on my normal coastal route which covers about half of the Encinitas Half Marathon so it was good practice for race day!
Tuesday: 10 miles easy. I really, really didn’t want to do this run. I pushed it off until 11 a.m. (we now have childcare on Tuesday mornings so I worked from a coffee shop for a few hours and then did my run). My phone was dying so I wasn’t able to listen to a podcast, it was hot, my legs were heavy, I kept wondering why I was running 10 miles just 5 days before my half marathon…. my mental state wasn’t good. I ended up doing an out and back and getting back to my car at 6 miles but convinced myself to do 1 more mile, then 1 more…then figured I might as well get to 10.
Wednesday: Rest. Siena was fighting a mild cold starting Monday and I woke up feeling like I was getting it so I ended up napping and then skipping my speed workout that night. I took Ny-Quil and slept 10+ hours that night and woke up feeling MUCH better on Thursday!
Thursday: Yoga (Beachbody on Demand 3 Week Yoga Retreat’s “Flow 1”). This was all I had energy and time for, though I did feel better than Wednesday.
Friday: 4.5 mile run. I woke up feeling much better and was convinced I fought off the cold! Mike and I ran with the stroller along the coast on Friday after he got off work. We picked up my packet at the expo and stretched a bit. I felt decent on this run and was pretty convinced I had fought of the cold!
Saturday: Rest day. I would normally do a shake out run the day before a race but since I ran so late on Friday, I decided to skip it.
Sunday: Encinitas Half Marathon (13.1 miles). You’ll have to read the race report for the details here! The summary: I was happy with my result, though it wasn’t quite as fast as I hoped. I felt good for most of the race, but never great.
Weekly Totals:
- Miles Run: 33.6
- Strength/Cross: 30 min
After reflecting a bit on last week, I realized that I really needed the mental break. I’m almost happy that I was starting to come down with some cold so that I could take some time off to rest, not just physically, but mentally. Although I’ve been super pumped and amped on the marathon, I still have 2 full months of training left, and the last thing I want to do is overtrain or burn out!
How often do you give yourself recovery weeks in training? Do you find that you need the mental or the physical break more?
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