ING Georgia Marathon (and half) March 30th, Atlanta.
My first ever half marathon is approaching next weekend. Since my 10K last weekend I have kind-of been on a taper, having only run once this past week. I will do my best to get in a "long" 8 or 10 miler this weekend if the pager will keep quiet. I have only run a 12 miler once (a few weeks ago) and it was tough. I am hoping that a good raceweek diet, a week rest from running and raceday adrenaline will get me through it.
Also, the Chicago Marathon is now less than 7 months away. I devised a training program that I will start the second week in April (after a week-long rest). The program has me building a single long run each week at a 5% weekly distance increase. Then two other runs during the week will be 6 and 8 miles each. Every fourth week is a break with only 4,4, and 6 mile runs. I am starting at a long run distance of 10 miles, and will get to a long of 23 miles 3 weeks before the marathon. I will end with a gradual taper then a week-long rest before the big day.
I chose to schedule this out using only three runs a week because of time constraints. I would love to run 4-5 days a week but my life is too unpredictable to count on for a scheduling the extra days; I will still try to run extra when I can. Also, I used a 5% weekly increase (really <4% given that I break every fourth week) rather than 10% because it will be more forgiving for the weeks I can't get in any runs. The break weeks give even more flexibility to this end.
I know it's not perfect but it seems like it will get me there (to 26.2), especially if weather is good and terrain flat. I can work on speed building for the second...
5 comments:
I'm looking forward to running ING next weekend myself. I'm in for the full, though.
Hey...good luck on your half marathon next weekend. Take it easy, see how you feel and enjoy the experience.
Good luck next weekend! I'll be in the mix too, going for the full. I totally hear you on the 3 day a week plan - it's completely do-able too. That's how I trained for my first two marathons and that part of the training was fine. (There were other issues with the second marathon I won't go into!) For my third, I thought I'd be all "pro" about it and try the 4-5 day a week plan and it has been a BEAR getting all the runs in! I will say that doing a short (3 mile) easy run the very next day after the long run did seem to have some benefits.
I say don't let work get in the way of training...of course I'm living on a college student budget but I get to train every day lol...work is overrated =)
Matty B
I would say good luck, but its over.
Well, was it worth it? I always answer yes.
Lets see a race report.
-Brian
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