Half Marathon!

[houseelf]

High Five!

I'm training for a half the first weekend in November! We'll pull each other up by the virtual bootstraps.

[bokelley]

Dh and I just signed up for the 1/2 training.

[SoonerTexan]

Watch out, you might end up pregnant

[scrub-jay]

Nice B!! Good luck!

[peggyfromwastate]

How do you make the jump to train for a marathon or half? Does it take a class? A training group? I have a friend training for a half and she just screwed up her knee. She's been training alone. I'm still afraid to run on the road lol. I can run 6 mi on a treadmill but I just know I'd die after a mile on the road.

Anyway I admire you--- go run and then post the badass 13.1 car magnet thing with pride!!!

[TulipsAndSunscreen]

How do you make the jump to train for a marathon or half? Does it take a class? A training group? I have a friend training for a half and she just screwed up her knee. She's been training alone. I'm still afraid to run on the road lol. I can run 6 mi on a treadmill but I just know I'd die after a mile on the road.

Anyway I admire you--- go run and then post the badass 13.1 car magnet thing with pride!!!

I did it on my own but I know that some people love training groups! I just couldn't find one that was convenient for my work schedule.

If you can run 6 miles on a treadmill, you can run 5 on the road! It's slightly easier on a treadmill because the road provides a different resistance (the belt on a treadmill pulls you along) but the effort is still there! Why can't you run on the road? I know some people are afraid of getting bored and to that I say, get a small iPod shuffle. They're ridiculously cheap and you can load it up with music or podcasts - whatever strikes your fancy! Do you have any trails around you? Those might be better if you're intimidated by road running. You can use mapmyrun[dot]com to find routes people use in your area - that might inspire you!

[bokelley]

Ours is a class that a local running store does. I have had several friends and they loved it!! I am hoping we can do it and not die.

[peggyfromwastate]

I'm afraid to run on the toad bc I think it will be so much harder!!!! I think it would be less boring than the treadmill-- and I plan to try to start road running this summer when it will be too hard to go to the gym.

I just am in a rut.

[bokelley]

Anyone know the type of training dh and I are in for? Do u do long runs on the week days.

[TulipsAndSunscreen]

For a half as a novice you'd typically do weekday runs of maximum 4-5 miles. Long runs (usually Saturday) of up to 11ish. Some programs have you run a full 13 but that's not always true.

My standard approach after having run about 15 in the last few years is to max out at about 10 miles in training but run that fast for a couple weeks
Instead of doing 13 milers.

You're going to enjoy it! You'll be shocked at how quickly 7 or 8 miles can seem like a normal weekend run.

[SoonerTexan]

T&S it is so true! I want to do another!

[peggyfromwastate]

What do you mean when you say fast??

[TulipsAndSunscreen]

What do you mean when you say fast??

Fast for ME. Which is still pretty darn slow. For half marathons, my personal best is 1:53 (which is like 8:45s) and a full it's 4:07 (which is like 9:15s). I have many friends that run 7s or 8s for a half marathon but I'm not one of them. Keep in mind that this was all pre-baby, I'd be lucky right now if I could run 9:30s for more than 4 miles. I have stumpy legs.

Keep in mind though, running is all about achieving things for your personally. I'm never going to be the fastest so I focus on things like finishing, beating a previous time, feeling good through a race, or following a good hydration strategy. It's freeing to not try to be "the best" for someone like me who is somewhat of a perfectionist. It's my biggest flaw but running is awesome since I am so impossibly far from being good that I am free to just enjoy it.

[peggyfromwastate]

I think that's fast. All of it lol. I'm lucky to do 3 miles of 8:30 on a treadmill. My pace is usually between 6.8-7.2 for 5-6 mi.

I meant more for your training purposes what would be fast? If your pace for a half is around 8:45 then training pace for weekends (assuming you don't have time to run more than 7-8 mi per run) would be what?

I'm seriously in awe of anyone who finishes these things. It's crazy.

[TulipsAndSunscreen]

I meant more for your training purposes what would be fast? If your pace for a half is around 8:45 then training pace for weekends (assuming you don't have time to run more than 7-8 mi per run) would be what?

So for a true novice, you'd run most of your runs at a comfortable pace where you can talk while you run. Once you get up to trying to improve your time, you'll run some runs faster than your goal pace and some runs shorter - every training day has a goal and "run hard" is not a good goal because you can't run hard every day. This is especially true of marathon training, you will almost never find a program that recommends you run "race pace" for longer than 15 miles. Which is what makes these races insane to non-runners. To train for the activity, you can't actually do the activity to it's fullest or you risk injury.

When I'm in training, I will typically run:

Mon: 1 speed workout a week (true sprints)
Tues: slow run focusing on form
Weds: moderate paced longer run (5-10 miles. 5-7 for a half, 10 for a full)
Thurs: Crosstrain (bike, yoga, etc)
Fri: off
Sat: long run (10-20 miles. 10-12 for a half, 16-20 for a full) slower than race pace by 10-15s/mile
Sunday: off

But I'm a crazy person and didn't have kids. I will likely not be able to train like this again for another decade (if ever). All this and I'm STILL pretty slow.

And my OB will tell you it's why I had trouble getting pregnant, FWIW. My RE didn't agree with him but it's definitely a possibility.