Flights booked, but what to do?

I finally got around to booking my flights for Melbourne marathon weekend. As yet though I'm still undecided whether to do the half or full. My training has been geared around doing the full, but at this stage I'm entered for the half. A last minute switch though is the likely scenario if the weather forecast is looking good a few days out. 

As for training this week, it's been one of those weeks where every run just felt hard.

Monday - 3.2 km's slow jogging. Felt crap so went home.

Tuesday - 2000 / 1600 / 1200 / 800 / 400 / 5 x 200. Probably the only run this week where I felt good. Hit the goal 3:20 pace for every rep. Did the last 5 x 200 slightly uphill. 400 recovery jogs except 200 in between the 200's. 15 km's continuous running all up in 66 mins.

Wednesday - Altitude Chamber. It was an absolute sweat pit in the chamber. The A/C was off and it was apparently 28 degrees in there. I've never sweated so much in my life. Did a bit of a fartlek session in there. 15 mins warm-up then 20 x 1 min on / 1 min off. 16.5 km/h hard and 10.0 km/h recovery. I'm guessing that equates to around 3:15's & 5:00's at sea level. It was hard work but my form held together. Followed with a short recovery jog and then finished out to 90 mins with 30 second surges followed by 90 sec recovery jogs. All up 18 km's in 90 mins. Sounds ridiculously slow doesn't it but my average HR was 147 and I reckon I lost 2-3 kg's in there. Running in the altitude chamber certainly doesn't make the diary look pretty. Luckily I couldn't care less. I'm really enjoying the variety and its food for me to toughen up a little by running in warmer conditions. I know I'm notorious for being someone who seeks out cold races and cool training conditions.

Thursday - Easy 17 km's - Felt flat.

Friday - 1 hour marathon effort tempo. 16.4 km's in the hour. Ran it purely to heart rate following my marathon heart rate formula, which is to keep my HR below 150 after 3 km's and allow a 1 BPM drift every 3 km's thereafter. I know this formula works well for me so I like to practise it in training rather than running to time splits. All up 20 km's of continuous running in 77:11. To be honest, my heart rate defied how I felt. Heavy hips and just felt flat. Not surprising though, having raced the previous Sunday, hard sessions Tue & Wed and not enough sleep due to being busy at work.

Saturday - 13 progressive easy in 59:16. Finished at low 4:00's pace. Ave HR 122

Sunday - 37 km's in 2:30:22. Average HR 143. No problems with the ticker but my legs and hips felt flat. 

123.3 km's for the week. Average pace 4:26