As I mentioned before, I’m planning to do the Run to Remember Half Marathon in May. I had planned to do a few weeks in January upping my mileage to build base, then start half marathon training at the beginning of February. However, I had some family issues and had to fly home to Mississippi, and it was very difficult to run down there. Plus I got sick and had to take a whole week off. So I had to delay half marathon training for a few weeks.
Since I got back and returned to my normal running schedule, my runs have felt very difficult. After 2 weeks back here, I’m finally starting to feel better. The first week, I did my usual 25 miles of easy runs. This past week, I started half marathon training according to a 14-week schedule from Runner’s World. I did 26 miles this week with a 3-mile tempo run and a 9-mile long run. The tempo run was especially difficult since I haven’t done any fast running in months. But I completed it at the pace I was shooting for, and hopefully my intervals this week will be doable as well. It’s fun to run fast as long as you’re not killing yourself every day.
My schedule has me doing one speed workout a week and a long run on Sundays, and it also provides goal paces for each workout. I build from 26 to 36 mpw with reduced mileage every 4th week. The schedule seems moderately difficult but totally doable, and as a side benefit, my 5k times should improve with the increased mileage and intensity.
So I’m excited about starting half marathon training. If this goes well, I might even try for a full marathon in the fall. We’ll see how it does.
