Monday, October 13, 2008

Half Marathon Test-Drive

Ok, I have read plenty of training plans for running a half marathon. I have seen the workout schedules, the gradual increase of mileage, the tapering info, the whole nine. And of course, I am completely disregarding them.

Fine, fine. That's not entirely true. I'm sort of custom-building my plan taking various others' plans into account. Which is why I thought I'd just jump right in and try to go a little over 13 miles this weekend, just to make sure I could.

I know that veteran runners would see the above statement and tell me how wrong and foolish that idea was. Yes, I KNOW you're supposed to increase distance in 5-10% increments over a long period of time. BUT, I walked plenty of it, and I know my limits. And quite frankly, before I spend the money to register for the Princess Half Marathon in WDW in March, I just wanted to know that I could complete the damn thing in the allotted time. 

And you know what? I found out I CAN!

It wasn't exactly easy, but it wasn't that big a struggle, either. All told, I probably only ran about 4 miles of the whole thing. I was sore later in the day, but I stretched, and I woke up the next day still mobile, so I have no regrets.

Now I just have to work on my time, and doing this thing with regular intervals, rather than my "run when I feel like it" approach for this first one. 

Woot! Princess, here I come. That tiara is MINE!


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