Advice from Runners please!

0flynnstone0

Where I live, there's one marathon a year (I thought). I wanted to try a half-marathon, but it's pretty expensive, and I'm pretty broke so I kind of nixed the idea.

But I just got an email from the Track Club that says they're having another one as a fundraiser for one of the parks here, and the fee is a lot less.

I really want to do it, but it's been a while since I've run. Just off and on a little in the past few months. The race is 9 weeks away from tomorrow, and I found a 9-week beginners training schedule on Runner's World. It says you should start off being able to run 5 miles without distress, average 15 to 20 miles a week, and have finished a 5-K.

I would probably be in some distress running 5 miles right now, like I said I haven't been running very often lately, but I've done a few 5ks and did a 10k last year. I've found that in the past my endurance comes back to me pretty quickly after not having run for a while.

I also looked at Hal Higdon's training plan. His is 12 weeks, but his week 4 starts off a little lighter (and more doable for me) than week 1 of the RW plan.

I really want to challenge myself to do this, but is it a bad idea to jump into a training schedule like this after I haven't been running for a while?

Thanks for your advice!

arc918

The good news is you can muscle your way through a half if you are undertrained (do not try this with a marathon). As long as you can get your long run up to 10-11 miles before race day, you'll survive.

It isn't ideal mind you, but you can give it a try. You're biggest issue is going to be overuse injuries from ramping up too fast.

Can you start training and then register in another month or so?

Good luck!

sarafil

I'm sure you could make your way through a half, but like arc918 said, I would worry about overuse injuries. I think training for a little while, and then seeing where you are at, is good advice.

0flynnstone0

Thanks guys!

Yep, registration is open for awhile. I'll see how it goes and then make my decision.