Wednesday, January 26, 2011

That's it???

I was thinking that some might stumble across detail of my plan and think that I'm not running enough to train for a half. Why? Cause I looked at it initially and I said, "This is all I have to run????" "Am I going to be able to do it with this little (and not die)?" I did get my plan from a runner. She's run over 4 marathons (not sure how many) and too many halfs to even count.

I am by no means qualified to make up a running plan, there are many available on line, but if you look at them they are pretty much all running. I have bootcamp 5 days a week---it's too intense to do it and a running plan like what can be found.

So here's what she told me: A good plan is made up of some speed training, strength training, runs, and long runs. I go to bootcamp 5 days a week. The camp provides the speed and strength training (and explains why my mile, 5K, etc. speed has improved). Then I have two runs a week and a long run on the weekend. She considers me to have a quality base at this point.

My goal is to finish and finish comfortably---no records here. I don't want to hate this half. I just want to do it and check the box as part of my overall banded journey.

All this being said, if I don't get enough quality sleep, the thought of an evening run is torture. My plan is really run Mon, Wed, and Sat. The good news is there's some flexibility in this plan. I need to get the 3 runs in. She doesn't want me doing them in a row, but I can move them around as needed.

Let's take today as an example, I had commitments that meant that I was getting a maximum of 5 hours of sleep Mon and Tues night. This morning it was hard to get up and go to bootcamp. Really hard. I wanted to just stay in bed, but I got up and went. But this afternoon, the 4 mile planned run - it just was not happening. I was exhausted and I was going to hate every minute of it. Thankfully, I'll get a full night's sleep tonight. So I moved this run to tomorrow.

Wanna run a 5K, 10K, 15K, half, or full marathon? With a good plan, you can do it! Scared? Guess what, I personally think that's totally normal! Don't have a runner friend? Concerned about an online plan? Look to see if there's a running store in your area. If so, drop by and see what you can find out. You might find out that there is some free "social" runs to participate in or a training class that you can join and then have a coach to help you get to your goals.

You never know, you might find yourself turning into F0rrest Gump, remember this?

That day, for no particular reason, I decided to go for a little run. So I ran to the end of the road. And when I got there, I thought maybe I'd run to the end of town. And when I got there, I thought maybe I'd just run across Greenbow County. And I figured, since I run this far, maybe I'd just run across the great state of Alabama. And that's what I did. I ran clear across Alabama. For no particular reason I just kept on going. I ran clear to the ocean. And when I got there, I figured, since I'd gone this far, I might as well turn around, just keep on going. When I got to another ocean, I figured, since I'd gone this far, I might as well just turn back, keep right on going.

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