Morning all. This is my first post on this forum and I definitely have a big dose of Imposter Syndrome! I've been running since April and have got up to 10 miles, but I'm not sure I'm doing it right. I followed Jojo's magic plan to get to 10K and then have basically added a bit of distance every week or two. Is that a good way to continue? I've also joined the strength & flex forum, but have been uninspired (lazy?) and haven't actually done anything yet. Last night I signed up for my 1st HM and I really can't believe I'm even thinking about it!!
All advice for moving forward in the best way welcome!
Written by
Lizcanrun
Half Marathon
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You're no imposter! With 10 miles under your belt and a HM booked you are very definitely a bona fide member of this forum - you're in the right place!!! When is your HM? That sounds like a perfect way to increase your distance. Try to incorporate one week in four with reduced distance to give your body some recovery time - a cut back week. Take a look at the pinned post which discusses everything from choosing your training plan to hanging your bling, and check out the weekly spring HM group posts for discussions too. Let us know how you're getting on, ask any questions you have and ... enjoy!
You still have quite a bit of time. Many HM plans are 12 weeks long and start from a 10k base, so you could go back to 10k and build up agin from there. Alternatively, running long every two or three weeks and extending that long run by a km each time would get you to 21k before the event. I guess it depends how much time you have and whether you enjoy the long runs but you have lots of scope with the time available 😊
Thats definitely a valid way to do things! If you want, you can look at HM beginner plans for some inspiration. Hal Higdon is good, or Runners World. Personally I ran my first half after only have ran 10 miles once! But of course, the more preparation you have the easier it becomes. Going forward, I'd try to have one long run per week, which can vary in distance. But also slowly increase your daily runs!
Most importantly, enjoy it! Theres no one right way to do things
Hi Lizcanrun and welcome over! You sound like you’re at a very similar point to me. I have also done 3 10 mile runs. My legs also hurt 😂. I did find they hurt less this time (Saturday)after making sure I hydrated well. I am also looking into strength exercises to see if that helps.
Yes, I'm not too good at hydrating before a run, especially when I go out on the morning. I've joined the strength & flex forum, but haven't done any of the exercises yet...
There are no imposters here Liz. Welcome! Signing up for a real HM is one surefire way to ensure you get that distance in. 🙂Linda’s advice and the weekly HM group posts should get you there safely. Best of luck with your training!
I didn't follow a plan to get to a half marathon. I did two shorter runs a week; one hills and one intervals. At the weekend I did a long, slow run. The only rule was that each week must be longer than the last one. It didn't matter if it was 100m or 2km, it just had to be longer.
Once I'd done over 16km twice, I just went for it one day. I hadn't prepared properly so had no water or snacks with me. I nearly passed out on the final km!
The second time I did it, I was much better prepared and felt much better.
Well done! I'm going to get to 10 miles next week, I did 9 yesterday! That's how I've got to doing half marathon too...Juju's plan to 10k then just adding a bit more. I'm hoping to do the HUHM at end of March. Every stage seems really hard and miles away....then you do it and it's fine! Good luck!
I was listening to the HM workshop in the Women's Running magazine podcast and Holly (who is the beginner) said she'd ben rubbish at actually doing the strength exercises... and Esther (the editor) said (roughly) "Well, that proves you're now a runner, because we're all really bad at getting around to doing strength work". So you definitely aren't an imposter!!
You aren’t an imposter, you’re just like us! You’re further on than I was when I first came here, you’ve done 10miles, and like a lot of others I’d only just made 10k when I arrived and the people here made me feel welcome.
I get what you’re saying though, if you do a self-made‘plan or an ad-hoc vague not-quite-planned plan it might feel like you’ve done it too unofficially for it to count. That’s just not the case. C25k is very prescriptive because (a) it prevents injuries and (b) it gives total newbies an idea of what a body can do. Once you’re past that stage though you really do know your capabilities and limits a lot better, which is why people do a whole host of very different plans and there isn’t really anything so universal as C25k. But whatever you did, I bet there’s a plan somewhere on the internet that closely matches your progression of runs.
I’m on my second plan for a HM and it could hardly be more different from the first. There are plenty of ways to improve, and improvement can mean further, longer, faster, or none of the above but managing to get less breathless on the same runs, or more challenging routes, or races...
It’s great that you’re going to do a HM. I think you’ll do it no problem, if you’ve already made it to ten miles. And even if you still feel like an imposter now, you’ll surely trust yourself to be the real deal once you’ve got that magical distance done.
Congratulations on your 3rd 10 miles, i dont usualy post over here either, having only done one 10 miles run, back in jan, and probably over did things, so had a quiet feb, resting a niggly groin pain. Your plan sounds fine, and i'd guess if you've done 10 miles x3 now, HM would be quite easy to get to, anyway good luck!
Definitely not an imposter. I'm currently also increasing my distance but as one of my sons said " Dad, just run at the pace that you enjoy". He's absolutely right IMHO. Its fast enough that he can slow down without getting frustrated if running with me and most of the time when I'm running solo, slow enough that I can be aware of the countryside noises and be thankful for the joy that running has given me.
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