It's lovely being back on this forum again. Over the past two years, I have been running 5k and 10k on my own and with my friends. On the 8th of January, I ran my longest ever run: 13.4km. Since then, I've started a proper 15-week training plan to prepare for a half marathon. I'm beginning on week 7 because I reckon I can already complete the shorter runs - and this will give me time to work on repeating long-distance runs. On Tuesday I ran 5km. I was mostly running uphill. Today I ran 5k without headphones and it was a lot harder, but I want to be more disciplined in that way. I cut off over 5 minutes from my time which showed how much more I pushed myself today. I have a 10km run coming up later this week and that completes my first week of training.
I am apprehensive but excited for the challenge. I know I am a lot fitter than I was when I did my first ever run on Couch to 5k back in 2018. I will be balancing my runs with cross-training and strength training.
By the way, I am preparing for the Vitality Big Half in April. Is anyone else here preparing for it? I'd love to hear your tips and we can definitely motivate each other! I run on my own which is fine most of the time but I'm hoping I can run with a friend some of the time .
Anyway, here begins the challenge!
Written by
Zee221b
Half Marathon
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What a brilliant progress posting Zee221b and up hill wow 👍👍
I don't know if you have seen, but we are running a Spring half marathon group on this forum - latest post here (and a new one to follow tomorrow): healthunlocked.com/marathon... you are welcome to join!
You're very welcome to join us for tips , motivation and support!
Half marathon is relatively easy and don't be surprised if in the end you run the whole thing without stopping, walking or drink breaks. What's important is that your longer runs are done at slow tempo (cardio zone 2, ideally). That will boost your stamina. It's good if you throw in some interval and tempo runs in the weekly training schedule, if time allows for them. Whatever you do, though, don't push it too hard. Wait until you've run 2-3 HMs in order to get a better idea of your own tempo.
Thank you for the tips, mrrun! That is my goal, to run without stopping, I hope I find this to be the case. I definitely have both interval and tempo runs dotted about the schedule so I will make sure I make them count! My only goal is to complete it, so I will definitely pace myself hopefully.
That's really exciting! What plan are you following? I started on the Garmin HM plan with coach Amy but I had to put it on hold because of foot niggles. I'm slowly building up after a 3 week break but I'm not sure I'll carry on with my current plan, I wasn't really enjoying it. I haven't signed up to any events yet, I think I need to give myself a bit more time to believe that I can actually do it 😲 🤣
I run with my local running club and they sent us a plan to follow if we wanted to. I amended it slightly but otherwise I'm pretty much planning to just stick to it and hope for the best! I thankfully I haven't had too many issues, although after 10km of running the soles of my feet get incredibly sore, and I've loft a toenail or two 😬 If you're not enjoying it see if you can make it fun by running with a friend maybe? Or just give it time - these things are pretty intense! You can definitely do it, whether its an official event of just a personal run it all counts 😊
Thank you ☺️ I do enjoy the longer runs, I just didn't enjoy the HM plan because there's a lot of cadence training and specific pace workouts, which I don't enjoy so much. I sort of prefer doing my own thing but I might try a different Garmin coach. Unfortunately, I don't have any friends I can run with but that's fine, I quite enjoy the 'me time' on my runs. I've done two 10ks and thankfully no problems with toenails or blisters 😳 🤞but I do need to make sure I use an ice pack on my foot after longer runs. It's only when I stop doing the right things that I have problems... Good luck with your plan, sounds like you're well on your way to that HM 💪👏👏👏😃
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