Question:
I'm a pretty new runner - I"ve been running seriously for about 3 months,
and I currently do 5.5K (about 3.5 miles) a day, 6 days a week. I have
to confess - I don't run all the way; I walk some of the hills towards the
end. My best time is 32 mins. I'd like to try for a half marathon at the
end of May - about 8 weeks away. Do I have time to build up enough? Or
should I wait until next year? Any advice welcome!
Answer:I've been running since I was little! I've done a few
marathons and talked some friends into doing some, too! your best bet is
to vary your training a little - do 3 or 4 days of running then take an
easy day - example: 3 miles, 5 miles, 3 miles, off, 3, 6, 4 then off.
..gradually building up to a 9-10 miler on a long day. if you can get
used to running for almost 2 hours you can do a half marathon and lie to
brag about it!! go to your library and check out some running books -
lots of them have easy to follow mileage charts to train with.....good
luck!!
Another build-up for distance is a week cycle: 3 miles, 4 miles, 5
miles ... (thank gosh) break; 3 m, 4 m, 5 m ... break. The next week
you bump it up a mile: 4 m, 5 m, 6 m ... break; 4 m, 5 m, 6 m ...
break; up one the next week (and on and on). If you fall out of
schedule - no problem! Just go back one week (lose a mile) to avoid
injury. After a while you really don't want to lose ground so you make
a special effort to stay on track.
I don't want to sound pessimistic, but a half marathon in 8 weeks seems a
little ambitious. If your goal is to run the entire race, 8 weeks will
not be enough time to properly prepare. Most people would recommend that
your long run increase only by a small percentage every two or three
weeks.
I would recommend that you gradually build up to the hal marathon
distance. Start with a 5k race in about a month, perhaps move up to a 5
mile race a month after that. If you are sucessful, move on to a 10k or
two in a few months. This will only put you about half way to the half
marathon, but you will probably experience more success and enjoyment.
From this point, you can plan for the half marathon. If your orginial
time frame of 8 weeks was geared to a specific race, you should be in
great condition to run that race next year.
This may seem like a slow and overly cautious schedule, but I would be
more worried that you would crash and burn by trying too much too soon
