Around 16 weeks to go and looks like there is no moving house or other shenanigans to stop it! Let’s go!

As I alluded to at the beginning of the year, I had to pull out of the 2022 Brighton Half Marathon as there is no way I could have ran it and moved house in the same weekend. Whilst it was difficult to pull out from, it was the right choice. Anyhow, this will be old news as I WILL be doing my very first half marathon in just 16 weeks time!! As my email inbox reminded me this morning! HELP!!!

Training Schedule

So I guess I better get started really. This will be the longest distance I’ve ever ran competitively, and I’ve only ran this distance twice before ever, and that was trail running not pounding concrete.

First things first, I need to start running concrete exclusively to condition my legs to it. It will make me sad to not see the hills but as the actual course is along the seafront I should run the course to get conditioned to it.

I’ve started using an app called Runna to help with my training. I was apprehensive due to the price, but it’s actually very good. It can provide training for 5k, 10k, 15k, Half Marathon, Marathons and even Ultras! I don’t think I’ll outgrow it any time soon. Another good thing is that it also provides strength and weights workouts to complement your running on off days. Here is my schedule for week 1!

You get to decide what days you want to do what on. I’ve left a day between runs to either to gym stuff or actually rest altogether. I’m very intrigued to see how this goes and looking forward to seeing if it helps!

I found training last year with a simpler app OK but in just one week I’ve been exposed to new terms like Tempo runs (running continually at a comfortable but hard pace), Interval runs (short bursts of run and walking to improve cardio), Easy Runs (you can guess this one) and Long Runs (Maps close to race performance). I hope treating training in this systematic way may improve my technique and fitness. At the moment my times for Half-Marathon distance are 3:07:48 and 3:45:28. Even though they’re on trails I would like to get it down in 2:15:00 if possible!

Anyhow, will be interesting to see how this goes!