My best friend since Grade School has signed up for a ½ marathon. Part of my plan for this year is to also run in another ½ marathon. After chatting with Liz off and on yesterday and feeling her excitement over each text message made me even more ready to kick it into gear. I am thoroughly enjoying the 5K’s that I have been doing over the past few months, but I think it is time for me to take it to the next level again. After all, this is exactly where I started 2 years ago with 5K’s. It eventually segued into my first ½ marathon which I ran in September ’08 with Shannon. Hard to believe it was that long ago, but it was and now it is time for another. I think (and hope) that me and Liz will be able to virtually train together. I may not be able to run with her, but we can at least do our training together. Much like Shannon and I did back in the day! We followed the same program and checked in pretty regularly to see how each other was doing. We were each others support group and motivation, when needed. It worked out well and I am certain that Liz and I can do the same.
Now that Liz has officially registered for her ½, I took it upon myself to send her a couple of links to help kick start the training.
Couch to 5K: This program is designed to help beginner runners (and even runners that have been away from the sport for a while) build up to 3 miles.
Hal Higdon’s ½ Marathon Training Program: This 12 week program is designed for the novice runner that can already comfortably run 3 miles.
The great thing about any program you find online is that you can customize it any way you like. You can make little tweaks here and there for it to fit your schedule, your life, your fitness level. For my training this year, I took the Hal Higdon program and added an additional 4 weeks. I came up with the perfect training routine for me. My next step is to talk to Liz and see what her plans are. Even if my tweaks don’t fit with her plans, we can still do this together.
It is said that experienced runners like half marathons, because racing 13 miles requires somewhat less time commitment than does a full 26-mile marathon. They can recover more rapidly. Personally, I have no opinion of this matter because I have never run a full marathon. Logically, it makes sense. But running 5K’s requires less recovery time too…so why not 5K’s versus ½ marathon! Oh well, I digress.
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
all i can say is awesome!!! i really admire yall that can to that.
Looks like a good training plan. I like training for a Half Marathon. You do enough to feel like you’re really accomplishing something big, yet you’re not totally exhausted by the end of your run.
Have fun with it! You should try the Oklahoma City Memorial sometime. It’s a great one.
Good luck!
This is good to hear Kami, considering you have done this multiple times. I am looking forward to starting this once again.
I will consider the OKC Memorial….gotta make it through this half with no injuries first!