Philadelphia Marathon Training - Week 6

Monday September 5
Swim 3100 yds
As I feared, now that marathon training has ramped up, I am having a hard time making it to the pool, even with a scheduled cross training day.  Since Monday was a holiday, it was the perfect day to fit in a swim.  Someone convinced me to do a 30 minute swim alternating 100 hard and 50 easy, so by the end of this workout my arms were toast.  But in a good way, of course.

Tuesday September 6
Run 7.13 mi; 3x1600
This was the first day that it hit me how tired I was.  I still managed a decent workout, but my legs felt pretty heavy the whole time.
Wednesday September 7
Run 10.0 mi
Since I was going out of town for the weekend, I wanted to get my long run in early.  Fortunately this was a step back week so it was more manageable to fit this in before work.  Ten miles is now my new before work distance PR.  Despite the fact that it was raining for most of this run I really enjoyed it.  And there is no better feeling then knowing the only thing I needed to do over the weekend was an easy 3 miler!
Thursday September 8
Run 3.0 mi
A nice easy (wet) recovery run. I love step back weeks because they include 3 mile runs! :)

Friday September 9
Run 6.83 mi; 5k tempo
By Friday I was getting a bit tired of running in the rain, but I'll take it any day over 80+ degrees and high humidity.  I felt much better than I did on Tuesday and managed to run my 5k tempo about 15 seconds faster than the week before.  It was a great way to start my long weekend!
Saturday September 10
Run 3.0 mi
A nice easy morning run on the boardwalk at the beach.  I've made it my goal to make sure my easy runs are actually easy so this was at a very relaxed pace.

Sunday September 11
Rest

Week 6 - 30.06 mi
This was another good week of training and the distance step back could not have come at a better time.  I find it hard to believe that I am already 6 weeks in and the race is only 10 weeks away!  There's lots of work to do before then.