Jay's Half Marathon Check in

Jay_83

Wow! Good luck on your 15K Kim!!:flowerforyou:
I did 8K yesturday, and I felt awesome! I cant believe how good I feel when I run. I think I have really found something for myself now. I ran down by the river this time, instead of through the streets. It was such a scenic route and I loved it. I think where I ran is is where my half marathon course is going to be, so it was nice to try out the hill situation. My husband biked beside me, kept asking how I was and kept track of how fast i was running and the distance i had run thus far. a lot of runners and bikers along the path, nice to see everyone out enjoying the weather. its supposed to be warm out today too, so i think we are wanting to go down to the river again, i enjoy it more there. Just a short easy run today, think I'll go for three miles.
Hip is doing great and so are the side cramps, so thing are lookin good and progress is great!! Hope everyone is doing great with their training!!!:bigsmile: :bigsmile:
Have an awesome Sunday!!:flowerforyou: :bigsmile:

neenaleigh

yay! i did my first one March 14th! i am signed up for number 2 already! May 23rd is my next date! Good LUCK! HAVE FUN! its an awesome feeling....i swear i cried when i hit mile marker 12 all the way to the finnish!

Jay_83

[/quote]yay! i did my first one March 14th! i am signed up for number 2 already! May 23rd is my next date! Good LUCK! HAVE FUN! its an awesome feeling....i swear i cried when i hit mile marker 12 all the way to the finnish!
[/quote]

Ya I think I will be crying as well! :laugh: I find it to be quite the feeling just to go for a 4 or 5 miles run, I can only imagine how emotional I'll get when I hit 12. Thanks for your support!! I am so excited to be doing this!!:bigsmile:
I went for a short run today, 3 miles. Felt good, everything is in check and I am looking forward to my next run. This is making me want to run ALL THE TIME!!!:laugh: I would rather run than anything else right now. I think I'm getting obsessed!:noway: :laugh:
Have a great week everyone!!:flowerforyou: :bigsmile:

Jay_83

:laugh: :laugh:
I apparently dont know how to quote someone. :bigsmile:

neenaleigh

I know exactly how you feel. While i was training for the first one i never wanted to stop. The week before i ran the 1/2 marathon, i had the unfortunate experience of stepping on an electrical plug that went through my foot! I had two gapping holes on the soft arch of my right foot! (still healing today), but no pain no gain right! i ended up running the entire thing in 2 1/2 hours! now im nervous that i wont suceed in running as fast for my second. I feel like i have to finnish faster since i wont be injured this next time....

So basically im asking.....Do you have any outside methods for speed training? I dont like to run on the treadmill anymore, it gets way too boring....

Jay_83

I know exactly how you feel. While i was training for the first one i never wanted to stop. The week before i ran the 1/2 marathon, i had the unfortunate experience of stepping on an electrical plug that went through my foot! I had two gapping holes on the soft arch of my right foot! (still healing today), but no pain no gain right! i ended up running the entire thing in 2 1/2 hours! now im nervous that i wont suceed in running as fast for my second. I feel like i have to finnish faster since i wont be injured this next time....

So basically im asking.....Do you have any outside methods for speed training? I dont like to run on the treadmill anymore, it gets way too boring....

I run outside, I have not ran on a treadmill during this process at all, mostly b/c i dont have one. During the week, I run through my neighborhood and on weekends, my husband and I go down to the river. The city has made a running/biking path along the South Saskatchewan River, so its absolutely beautiful to run. I set my watch to time myself and my husband has a mile gage on the bike, so then we just calculate at the end how fast I was running, put it in an excel file to keep track and see how my speed has progressed. You could always switch up treadmill and running outside? I do have an elliptical, so days when the weather is crappy or its a rest day, I go on there for a good hour. Change of scenery may be just what you need. Different music helps too . . .:bigsmile:

Wow! I cant believe you still did a half marathon even if your foot was injured. You must have a pretty high pain tolerance.:noway: Try not to put any pressure on yourself to beat your time, otherwise I find that its not fun anymore. But if that is what your goal is(time), good luck!:flowerforyou: :bigsmile:

runnerdad

So basically im asking.....Do you have any outside methods for speed training? I dont like to run on the treadmill anymore, it gets way too boring....

Run intervals. The easiest way is if you have access to a high school track. Do your warm up, run a lap hard, walk or jog for a minute to recover and repeat. The goal is not an all-out -sprint, pick a pace you can repeat several times in a row. There are countless variations you can do, run single laps (400 m), double laps (800s), or mix it up. One work out I like is 4 x 400, 2 x 800, 4 x 400 again. If you can't run on a track, it may be easier to run to time rather than distance - two minutes hard, one minute easy, two minutes hard, one minute easy. As you increase your fitness, you can do longer intervals (four minutes hard, two minutes easy), or cut down on your recovery (four minutes hard, one minute easy). So have fun with it and find what works for you. Do your speed work once a week. If you can calculate your speed, aim for a minute/mile faster than your 10 K race pace. Guessing from your 1/2 pace, say your 10K pace would be 10:30, so shoot for 9:30 on your intervals. You will find over time it will really pick up your fitness and stamina, and you will get faster.

Jay_83

Ran my next 3 miles today. I feel good. found out that the cramping is actually called side stitches. i didnt know that. so i worked on getting rid of side stitches as i ran today, a lot of deep breathes and flexing my ab muscles. seemed to help along with putting pressure on it. i think ill get the hang of it. always seems to be the same problem. lol.:bigsmile:

Jay_83

Had a 4 mile run yesturday. I must need time to warm up a bit, b/c I had excruciating side stiches:sad: (I'll use the right term now that I know what it is.) :laugh: I had to walk part way which I have never done on a run before. I guess its not a bad thing to walk. The pain was paralyzing and I had to stop and I thought I was going to keal over. And I really dont get it this time, b/c i did everything i was suppose to do, I was by far NOT dehydrated. I had sooooo much water that day. Maybe did I drink too much water?? I tried slowing down a bit and that was ok, On my third mile I was able to pick up the pace quite a bit and no side stitches. Is my body just getting used to the run? Maybe I should warmup/walk for the first half mile or something?? I really dont want that to happen when I'm doing the half marathon. I'm running out of ideas . . .

6 miles tomorrow!!!:bigsmile:

Jay_83

Hey guys! forgot to login on the weekend there. I was able to make it 10.4 km on Saturday. It was a great run. I had side stitches for the first two km then they went away. i felt like i could have kept going too! the run sunday hurt a lot with the side stitches. i was very sore yesturday and now i am just about to go for another run here. i just ate tho, so i feel that it wont be very good. ill try my best tho.
my cousin who did the hald marathon at the end of march in TN is now doing another one in IL. She is great inspiration and motivation for me!

neenaleigh

So basically im asking.....Do you have any outside methods for speed training? I dont like to run on the treadmill anymore, it gets way too boring....

Run intervals. The easiest way is if you have access to a high school track. Do your warm up, run a lap hard, walk or jog for a minute to recover and repeat. The goal is not an all-out -sprint, pick a pace you can repeat several times in a row. There are countless variations you can do, run single laps (400 m), double laps (800s), or mix it up. One work out I like is 4 x 400, 2 x 800, 4 x 400 again. If you can't run on a track, it may be easier to run to time rather than distance - two minutes hard, one minute easy, two minutes hard, one minute easy. As you increase your fitness, you can do longer intervals (four minutes hard, two minutes easy), or cut down on your recovery (four minutes hard, one minute easy). So have fun with it and find what works for you. Do your speed work once a week. If you can calculate your speed, aim for a minute/mile faster than your 10 K race pace. Guessing from your 1/2 pace, say your 10K pace would be 10:30, so shoot for 9:30 on your intervals. You will find over time it will really pick up your fitness and stamina, and you will get faster.

Thanks!!!!!!!!!!

Jay_83

Forgot to check in with my AMAZING run on Sunday! 11.2 km and NO SIDE STITCHES!!!! finally. :bigsmile: :bigsmile: I am very excited about this. It feels great to run now. The weather has been crappy, lots of rainy days this week so I went on the elliptical for about an hour. I'll try to go outside to run tomorrow, hopefully not so rainy. but man am i happy about these side stitches!!!:bigsmile:

Jay_83

Ran 4 miles after work yesturday. I did get side stitches for a bit but I managed my breathing patterns better and they went away. Then I started to get them on both sides(obviously i drank too much water and my stomach was getting heavy), so I had to change up my breathing quite a bit. I know I sure have to watch what I eat and drink the same day I run. That has such a huge impact on the side stitches.
I have my rest day today and long run tomorrow, 8 miles. So i am excited for that.
I did get some pain in my knee, I am thinking I overextended it when I was on the elliptical the day before, so something to watch out for I guess.
I checked out the half marathon webpage that I am signing up for, there are already 1500 people that have registered and the half is May 30th!!! Wow I guess I better get on that. And they posted the course on which I am running, seems to be in the same area that I am running so thats good, especially when it comes to training for the hills!

Hope everyone is doing great and run are going smoothly!!:flowerforyou: :bigsmile:

Jay_83

On Saturday I ran 12.8 km!!! furthest I have gone so far. I had side stitches for the first half, got my breathing under control and then I was great for the last half. I think maybe the hills that I ran this time played my legs out, so that was the problem the second half. But its the course that ill be running at the end of may so i think its best for my body to run them.
I have a 4 mile run after work today. See how that goes. . .

Miamarie514

Hi Jay,

Just stumbled on this message board. Its great that you are training ! Sounds like you are getting up there on your runs,

I am 20 and ran a 10mile last october but right after that I injured my IT band for the entire WINTER and just started training again in the middle of March. My goal is to run a half in august, but I have been having a lot of problems with my knees and thighs.

Today I ran 5 miles fairly slowly but i finished , second time ive done that since ive been injured.

I wish you all the best on your runs and I hope you get your side cramps in check!!

Happy training , well hopefully most days,

Jay_83

Hi Jay,

Just stumbled on this message board. Its great that you are training ! Sounds like you are getting up there on your runs,

I am 20 and ran a 10mile last october but right after that I injured my IT band for the entire WINTER and just started training again in the middle of March. My goal is to run a half in august, but I have been having a lot of problems with my knees and thighs.

Today I ran 5 miles fairly slowly but i finished , second time ive done that since ive been injured.

I wish you all the best on your runs and I hope you get your side cramps in check!!

Happy training , well hopefully most days,

Hey there Marie! I thankfully havent gotten injured yet while training. and hopefully it wont happen. I hope you get back on the right track, sounds like it tho. take it slow. You should be ready to go in August for sure!! Good luck!

Side stitches are getting managable now. I went for another 4 miler yesturday and I go them but managed them well with my breathing. I didnt have them for the last half of the run which was nice, but again, my legs were exhausted. i need more energy, i feel like im running out of steam. and thats just a 4 miler. i'm a little scared when it comes to the half in a little more than a month. wow, its coming up quick! but i am excited for sure. I have a long run on Saturday, but its supposed to rain so we will see how that goes. 9 miles Saturday. and then i have a stagette to go to that evening, so I wonder if ill fall asleep in the bar . . . :laugh: :laugh:

Jay_83

14.8 KM on Saturday!!! I'm sooooo excited!!!

Jay_83

I ran 18 km yesturday!!!! Longest yet and I am soooo close to the 21 km that I have to run for the race. So excited!!!!:bigsmile: :bigsmile: