Road to the half: Running out of time!

adambarratt (62)in #running • 7 years ago (edited)

A quick post to check in with the running crew, and anyone else interested!

I finally got my legs moving again this morning. I mean, they're fine but out and about for a run… it's been a few weeks and I have the small matter of a half-marathon to attend to on April 8th.

So that's 3 short weeks to get in shape and hopefully do myself justice. My aim is simply to finish without stopping, however slow I go as it's my first time at the distance, although I've done a few 10ks.

Time is not so important, although I'd like to beat 2hrs as that's a nice round figure and doable I believe. My last 10k time was just over 52mins, so I think I can 'easily' do 2 x 56m 10ks and allow 6 minutes for the additional kilometre. That will still leave a couple of minutes in hand. This should be fine but you never know how you'll feel on the way round!

Today I did a couple of laps round the park at a nice slow pace just to get back into it. I'll do something similar on Wednesday, perhaps at a slightly quicker pace (and opposite way round the park), then on Friday or Saturday increase the distance. I like to keep at least a day in between to be able to recover and not risk the dodgy knees giving up… a couple of days in between is a good idea sometimes as it's frequent enough but more recovery time.

Then on the 'rest' days I can do bodyweight exercises, walk and generally keep supple/stretched. There's nothing to say you have to go 'all out' on each run. Some days could be more 'sprinty' over shorter distances, other days far and slow, others somewhere in between.

I'll get about 8 runs in before the big day… I should have got to it sooner but at the same time that's enough for me to get to where I want to be and hopefully not too much to risk injury.

Meanwhile, my social life will grind to a halt as that's as much of a feature as the training. By which I mean; avoiding alcohol, late nights and bad food! This contributes more to my health and fitness than the actual training… although obviously that's important too and a half-marathon is no walk in the park (or it could end up that way if you're not careful ;)).

I don't have any gadgets or apps to say what distance I've ran, times, heart rate and all that great stuff. I tend to leave my phone at home as I don't want it with me. It gets in the way, plus I like having the time away from it. As much as we love each other, it's important to have that space apart, you know? In all seriousness, it's nice to be away from notifications and anything phone related… or any equipment for that matter.

As I get more serious about running/fitness and want to track things, I will either take my phone along with suitable apps installed (which I can use on flight mode) or some other gadget that does the trick. For now, it's just about getting out there and seeing how I feel.

It felt reasonably good today… no heroics or pushing it at all. That's phase one. Next phase is stepping things up a bit and being at about the right level come April 8th. So I'd say I'm on course.

That'll do for now. Anyone with any tips to help support and improve dodgy knees, nutrition and training advice or anything else related, feel free to comment!

And who else is running themselves ragged this week?? ;)

~ Adam
@adambarratt

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