Tuesday, August 28, 2012

Half Marathon

I have decided one of my upcoming running goals is to run a half marathon.  There is a race on March 1st which is about 6 months away.  I feel very confident that I will be able to train and complete this race. 

I have been talking about running a marathon or half marathon for years now. My longest run to date is a little over 8 miles.  I can consistently run 5 and 6 miles without an issue and I am currently up to about 20-25 miles a week.  While I feel I could train for a full marathon, I have other reasons that are pushing me to stick with the half.

The first reason is time.  My goal for the half will be to finish in less than 2 hours.  A full marathon would take me over 4 hours to complete.  Right now in my life, I do not have the luxury of being able to train properly for it.  On the other hand, since I’m already used to running most days for over an hour, gradually increasing it to 2 hours over the next 6 months is totally achievable. Also a 2 hour time translates into a 9:10 per minute mile; I can run that comfortably for over 5 miles.

The second reason is nutrition and diet.  I am not looking to drastically change my eating to increase what I eat, like going through spurts of carb-loading. To run an extra hour, I can easily bring an additional piece of my banana bread with me in my fanny pack.

The third and last reason is that I enjoy running.   I don’t want to run a marathon and then have to take time off to recover, especially since I have had trouble with my knees in the past. 

Do any of you have any upcoming races you are training for?

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