THANK YOU for all the responses and emails yesterday regarding hydration & fuel! I'll be trying some of these out during this week and would love to hear any other ideas you've got!
*******************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
To say I am nervous about this half marathon would be an understatement. In an effort to stay committed (and calm my nerves), I have signed up for a few races along the way. According to Hal Higdon's Novice 1 training plan I should do a 5K on week 6 (Oct. 12) and a 10k on week 9 (Nov. 2).
*******************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
To say I am nervous about this half marathon would be an understatement. In an effort to stay committed (and calm my nerves), I have signed up for a few races along the way. According to Hal Higdon's Novice 1 training plan I should do a 5K on week 6 (Oct. 12) and a 10k on week 9 (Nov. 2).
BCM Wellness 5K
Saturday, Oct. 12th
5K course through the med center in Houston. My goal is 30 minutes or less. Right now I'm consistently averaging about 12:30/mile but I can run a mile at or around 9:30. As in, one mile and then I'm done. The hard part is not giving up after that one mile and to keep the pace up for 3 miles. I'm trying some negative splits this week so check in next Monday to see how that works out. Hopefully it gets better because it was an epic fail on Sunday's run.
PARC Monster Dash 10K
Saturday, Nov. 2nd
This course is part of the Pearland Area Runner's Club and it was basically the only 10K within reasonable distance from me that weekend. Because this is my first half marathon, I'm trying to stay as close to the training program as possible and when it says "10K race", then you best believe I'll be running a 10K race! Not too sure what a realistic goal is yet. Theoretically, if I can accomplish my 30 minute 5K then I should aim for a 60 minute 10K. Twice the distance, twice the time. Right? But that assumes I can maintain a 10-minute mile pace for twice as far. So for now, the goal is 70 minutes. I just rain 4 miles in 52 minutes so this seems plausible.
And because that isn't enough....
We signed up for the Tough Mudder!
My (future) brother- and sister-in-law did the Tough Mudder last year and I was very jealous of them. Unfortunately, it fell during football season and Bryan has a strict rule about missing any football games so we didn't participate. Yes, I could have gone on my own but everyone else was a couple and I was nervous and just didn't want to do it without him. No judgment. This year, the Tough Mudder is Oct. 5th and that just happens to be the Aggie bye week! Score!
The Tough Mudder is billed
as a 10-12 mile obstacle race, so it will fit in nicely with half
marathon training. And they (sometimes) offer free tattoos after the
race. Who knows, maybe I'll get tatted up for the first time too!
 |
| Just kidding, mom! Maybe.... I don't have a goal for the Tough Mudder except to complete all the obstacles and finish. We're going as a group and it's more about the experience then trying to get a certain time. Plus, what would that time tell me? An obstacle run isn't at all comparable to how I would do on a regular run at the same distance. Do you have any races planned to help you meet your goals? Anyone in the Houston area want to sign up and join me for these runs? I'd love to hear about your plans! xoxo, Cait |
Wow thats awesome.. i wish i could get commited like that.. i been wanting to do a tough mudder but not sure if i am ready for that yet lol.
ReplyDeleteTough Mudder sounds so intense so good for you! I'm not ready to pay for a race yet - I still take lots of walk breaks, haha. I hope you enjoy these, though!
ReplyDeleteA couple things... for training runs, I would really work on endurance before you work on speed. Focus on an easy conversational pace... you have to train your body to pull from your glycogen stores otherwise it's gonna use muscle for fuel and you'll fatigue faster. With my running group, we run about a minute slower during most of our training runs than our race pace is. Work on building up the time on your feet, rather than your speed. I promise you will appreciate it at race time... the adrenaline and excitement of the race will push you to run faster anyway. I ALWAYS make the mistake of going out too fast at races and tire out before the end... so train your body to keep it steady. As your endurance increases you can begin adding shorter "race pace" intervals into the MIDDLE of your run, with an easier warm up and cool down. Don't put too much pressure on your goal times for races... a sub-30 5k is pretty fast, especially for so early in your training schedule. And same with the 10K... I just started breaking an hour in the past year and I've been running for about 4 years now. Be sure to start slow and if you're feeling good near the end you can push it harder! Not trying to be a "debbie downer" by any means... just trying to share some experience... because I've been there quite a few times now. I am SO proud of you for taking on all of these races - you are so ambitious!! :) I'm terrified of the tough mudder, so you'll have to let me know how it goes! Keep up the great work!! :)
ReplyDelete