Marathon Training: Week 4

Total kilometers run: 154.9km
This week: 43.8km

This week's runs:
Tuesday: 8km easy with sprints at end (6:41 min/km avg pace)
Thursday: 10km tempo (6:24 min/km avg pace)
Saturday: 6.5km easy (6:32 min/km avg pace)
Sunday: 19.3km steady (6:33 min/km avg pace)

This week was nothing too exciting as far as marathon training goes. The weather was decent once again (though the forecast for next weekend seems to be 80 billion below, so that will be interesting...). Lots of kilometers this week, however! I am slowly ramping up and on Sunday I ran almost a half marathon and it took me 2:07. Probably would have been almost 2:20 if I ran the full 21.1. Much slower than my race last year where I ran the half in 1:55! I am still not entirely sure if my slowness is the effect of the cold weather, or just getting back into training again. Not that I expect to run at race pace on a training run...but overall I thought I would be naturally a bit faster. 

I have also had a bit of an issue with pain in my left calf, but thankfully it seems almost gone and was probably just a very minor muscle strain. The best way to treat that is ice and rest so I didn't push too hard this week and iced every chance I could.

Next week is another big push on overall mileage (kilometerage?), but I think the week after is a break week (where I run shorter distances to give my legs a rest). Yay break week!! After that my long run will be basically over the half marathon distance for a few weeks until another break week comes along. In relate-able terms...that is a 2 to 3 hours of running every Sunday. And yes, I am starting to question my sanity. 

Oh well, another week down and 12 more to go!