Okay so I have a few dilemmas. I know 2 blogs in one day...you can tell where my mind is!
Chris's comment on my last blog made me actually pull out the training plan to take a look at it and thus began this cycle of thinking about running. I find it interesting how much running consumes your mind. Anyway...back to the question. I had originally planned on using the Hal Higdon Half Marathon training plan but at a sudden last minute switch, I went over and made a customized Runner's World training plan. The dilemma is...it says I should be running most of my runs at a 12:18-12:26 pace. This is sooo much slower than what my pace currently is. I'm not sure how they calculated that pace but I'm going to feel like a tortoise trying to run at that pace. My average pace right now has been about 9:20. What are your suggestions? I'm thinking I should just ignore the pace guidelines they have completely and just pay attention to the distance and type of run (easy, long, tempo, speedwork).
Second...I think I still have this yearning to run the full Twin Cities marathon. I thought it was completely gone until I ran that 10 miler with no problem. I just don't want to add more stress to an already stressful time of year in which I'll have added classes. But anyway, I know I should put it off until next year ideally but just so you know...it's on my mind...yikes.
I am General Disarray
15 hours ago
5 comments:
I'd say on short days you can ignore completely ignore the pace they recommend and go with how you feel. But be a little more on the long runs, just to avoid injury or wearing yourself out, specially when the big runs start to come.
About the full... well, you are just officially starting your training for the half and already running 10 miles, i'm sure that you could be running the half in 6 weeks easily, and as the weeks go by you will be certain of that too. It seems like you are in good shape and have the motivation to take on a full marathon training program. If you have the time for it, i'd say go for it.
They probably came up with the paces based on the recent race time you provided them. Was the race that you used a particularly slow one? Maybe you should try another 5k and run fast as you can. Either that, or just go run a 5k or 10k as fast as you can and time yourself. That will probably get you more accurate paces for your marathon plan.
It does sound like your body is ready to tackle marathon training if you are already at 10 miles.
Crap Rachel. I thought we were over this! I was right there with you on doing a marathon this year, and YOU told me that you were going to hold off on the full and concentrate on the half. Here we go again!
However, I do agree that I think you might be ready to go for the full.
I had these same thoughts when I did 9 miles last weekend. I figured I would be running 13 in a few weeks and I still had 5 months until the half. But I think I am still going to hold off on the full and try to aim for a time goal of less than two hours. At my current pace, I am looking at a 2:10 - 2:20 finish time and I really want a 2:00. You could always do something like that.
No need to rush, right?
If I were you, I wouldn't worry too much about the pace guidelines and would just stick to running at a pace that feels right. Like Alien says, your shorter runs are going to be faster than your longer runs, but if you are currently averaging a 9:20 on your training runs, I don't see any reason why you should run so much slower. That would probably make things harder, as a matter of fact, and I can't think of any reason why you should do it.
I agree that you should go your own pace. There's no point in slowing down that much. I also used the Smart Coach tool on the RW website and it only has me running twice a week and XT or resting the remaining 5. That didn't make much sense to me. It also listed a slower pace than I'm used to for long runs. I think I'm going to loosely follow it but add at least 1 or 2 other days of short runs. Good luck!
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