MFP Runners Club 4/3

that's amazing! all I've done is gotten my morning coffee

no running for me today...cardio kickboxing at the gym!!

I also did bootcamp this morning at 5:30. there was some running today but I skipped that. Trying to rest the shin before I do some more running. Maybe tomorrow or Sunday.

Day off from running/ elliptical. Did ChaLean fat burning challenge though!

6 mile run tomorrow, my last *long* run before the half next Sat! :bigsmile:

jess let me ask you....is this your first half marathon you are doing? i am so interested to hear how it went btw!

Anyway, I printed out the beginners schedule for my first run but I have questions. Like, some of the days only call for 2 or 3 mile runs. Usually when I get out now I aim for 4 or 5 each time (it's taken me 3 months to get up to that!) I feel like just doing a 2 mile run for the whole day won't be enough of a workout (i guess concerning weight loss)...but the intermediate guide looks out of my league.

any thoughts/suggestions? this goes out to anyone who can answer

2 cents for Star:

I ran my first half in November. I had the same concern when I started my training program. I used the Runner's World Smart Coach. I would recommend following the training as directed. I arrived at the starting line injury free and actually finished 12 minutes faster than my goal finish time. I think it was because I did not overtrain.

I was surprised to find myself tired during some phases of the training. My training was for 16 weeks. It started off very easy then worked me hard for 3 weeks and easy for 1 week over and over until about 2 weeks before the race.

Another thing that I think really helped me were the once a week speed and tempo runs. In the beginning I dreaded those training days. I nicknamed them the vomit runs because if you are doing them right you will come close but not actually hurl at the end of one. As the weeks passed, my easy runs became easier and easier physically and mentally because I knew what it was like to run hard. I started to think the easy runs were "very easy".

Hope this helps!
-Kechie.

Give me a little more information about what was confusing and I'll see if I can help.

The speed and tempo runs should be run at a "comfortably hard pace". That means you'll be able to get about 3 words out while you're running. I check myself by saying "pace is good". If you can talk more than that, you're not running fast enough.

At the same time, you don't want to start off so fast that you can't hold the pace for your repeats or you can't continue to run during the "jog" intervals. This happened to me quite a bit when I first started doing speed and interval training. I would go out too hard and end up walking during my "jog" intervals or I'd end up doing a really fast first interval and all the others would be much slower. You'll learn.

It is recommended that you do these workouts on a track. Since I don't have easy access to a track and I live in a low traffic subdivision, I just used the blocks in my neighborhood. They ended up being about 800 meters each. Don't worry if you look weird running up and down the street.:laugh: If you don't use a track, try to pick relatively flat streets.

If you don't have a Garmin to measure your distance, use your car odometer or a site like runningmap.com.

5.5 for me this am.....behind on my goal of 100 miles in 4 weeks by 11 miles but determined to catch up a little each day.

:flowerforyou:

jess let me ask you....is this your first half marathon you are doing? i am so interested to hear how it went btw!

Anyway, I printed out the beginners schedule for my first run but I have questions. Like, some of the days only call for 2 or 3 mile runs. Usually when I get out now I aim for 4 or 5 each time (it's taken me 3 months to get up to that!) I feel like just doing a 2 mile run for the whole day won't be enough of a workout (i guess concerning weight loss)...but the intermediate guide looks out of my league.

any thoughts/suggestions? this goes out to anyone who can answer

Nope, this is my 3rd half. I used the Hal Higdon for my first 2 half marathons, but found that running 5 days a week was just too much for me (I like to cross train plus tend to get tendonitis too easily from high mileage).

Ketchie gave you some awesome advice above. I have been using a program from runnersworld.com also, the FIRST training plan. 3 days of running a week, one speedwork, one tempo, and one long run. I figured my paces from a 10K that I ran last year (and also wanting to beat my last half mary time) and went from that. I run Tues, Thurs, and Sat, and then cross train (elliptical, bike, weight training) the other days. It's worked great for me! Let me know if you have any more questions!

Jess

Haven't made it out yet for a run, but hoping for an easy 2 miles at a jog/walk pace. I did day 2 of the Couch to 5K last night, but I feel so good that I really want to get out there again.

Happy Friday!