Oh hello. Bienvenue! Velkommen! Maruhabaa! It’s me from before. I noticed quite a bit of international traffic to the blog recently, which has made me feel vaguely like an international icon. And with minimum 200% less infrastructure-inflicted poverty than the World Cup.
On a more personal note, I signed up for a Half Marathon! It’s on September 27 which means I am two weeks into a 12-week training plan. I’m following Hal Higdon’s Novice 2 training plan. Does anyone have any other training plan to recommend? Mr. Higdon’s is pretty straight forward: run 4 times a week (including one long run), cross train one time, rest the other two days. The long runs get a mile longer each week. The lesson for me here is clear: there is no black magic or intelligent combination that results in success. To become a stronger runner, you just have to run. Kind of a bummer.
I am very goal-oriented; which makes races (and their role as deadlines) exceedingly motivating for me. It helps me prioritize running and makes me feel like each run is important, and therefore not optional. If I am training, I am less likely to skip a run just because I’m out of town or because it’s raining or because I’ve remembered television exists. (I go for stretches thinking the giant screen in my living room is just a shitty mirror.)
The first two weeks of training have gone swimmingly and I’m on a bit of a runners’ high. Any tips on how to keep it? Or how to stay motivated even through the un-fun runs? Any and all training advice welcome.
Congrats – you’ll have a blast! Last round of training I got into making soundtracks to get me through my long runs, and that worked well. I think I used Hal’s training before, but found it helpful to mix up the speeds of my runs a bit throughout training (I ended up kind of mixing a few different plans together). Looking forward to hearing more!
Author
Thank you! That’s awesome. Which race did you run?
We have one in Minneapolis in May called “Get in Gear” that’s meant to kind of kick off spring. Except some years it snows, which always adds some excitement…
Author
That’s awesome!! Well save for the snow.
You’ll love the Hamptons Half – it was my first half marathon and I’m running it for the third time this year!
Author
That’s so good to hear!! I hear it’s pretty flat. Is that what you remember?
There are rolling hills so it’s not pancake flat, but there aren’t any giant hills either. Nothing compared to Central Park, but not flat!
Author
Ahh got it. Thank you!!