Pittsburgh Half Marathon: Training Week 13

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This week proved to me a lot of what I am capable of — physically and especially mentally. Game On, Pittsburgh!

Monday: Much-needed day of rest (and cleaning my house). My foot really, really hurts from the Cherry Blossom race, but I’m also dealing with some knee soreness. No visible swelling, from what I can tell, but I’ve been icing both. Since both are on my left leg, I’m beginning to think something is up on that side — shoes? IT band? Tight glutes? Shut up and get a massage? (OK).

Need all three of these guys tonight. #recovery #cucb2015 #gameonpgh #foamrolling

A photo posted by Melinda (@melliesmel) on

I foam rolled for about an hour with all three of my apparatuses (apperati?), really focusing on my hips, IT band, and quads.

Tuesday: Emergency massage appointment activated! What’s that? My calves and hamstrings are super tight. Oh. This session felt and hurt so good. And, err… guess I’ll spend some additional time stretching and rolling my calves and hamstrings.

Wednesday: Still a little sore, so I decided to take another day to really stretch everything and ice my knee and foot. I feel mighty bruised from that massage too. Woof.

Thursday: 2 mile run… and I feel good again. I followed up that “good” with a couple sets of body strength workouts found in Runner’s World, push-ups, and a killer ab workout.

2.0 miles outside, 10:00/pace

Friday: Took a rest day, and went to an amazing Pittsburgh Ballet performance of La Bayadere (and I cheated and ate some tomato sauce on my gluten-free pizza).

Saturday: What a beautiful day! Left the house without my water bottle, so I ran to 7-Eleven and thank the lord because it was a LOT warmer than I anticipated! I accomplished the West End Bridge (both directions) and ran around the Point to get a nice mist of fountain water. More importantly, I. Felt. Good. First time that I felt really confident about running this half in a couple weeks. So, I’ll make sure that I eat an egg sandwich on race day. 🙂

First time running over the West End Bridge!
First time running over the West End Bridge!

They were setting up for Pirates fireworks on the Sixth Street Bridge when I ran over, and that was terrifying. Holy moly, that’s a lot of explosives for one bridge. I ran back on the Seventh Street Bridge — and look what I saw:

Game on!
Game on!

6.48 outside at 10:30 pace

Sunday: REST. A paper due, and group project assignment to compile (which I did outside on the patio and can all weekends in Pittsburgh be like this?!). I also played in my closet a bit — spring cleaning was necessary on this day of rest. And you know, since running is changing my former derby body, a clean-out was imminent.

Bonus about this Spring weather: walked to-from work four times this week for a total of 8 miles! 🙂

Total runs this week: 2
Weekly mileage: 8.48
Total training mileage: 87.47 miles!