Question:
I began running about 2 weeks ago,
and the first day I managed 0.15
miles (stopped after that since
I had this terrible blood taste
in my mouth) Anyway, I increased
it slowly and mixed in more walking,
and yesterday I actually ran 2 miles
(without stopping/walking) which
was a major high (go ahead, laugh,
but it is alot for me, the most
I've ever run in one go, ever!).
Anyway, I'm
thinking about registering for the
Silicon Valley Marathon (the Half
Marathon), which takes place on
October 27th, more than 6 months
away. I'm currently training 30
minutes (but I expect that to increase
as I increase my distance) 5 days
a week.
Is this a
reasonable goal? Or is it just madness
going for a half marathon after
only 6 months (especially considering
that before 2 weeks ago, I never
exercised whatsoever)? I'm aiming
at a speed of 13 minutes per mile,
so it is not very fast, and some
people could probably walk faster
than that, but I only want to finish.
It might also be worth noting that
I'm currently about 70 pounds overweight
(I'm tall though so it is not as
bad as it sounds, except that it
is an additional 70 useless pounds
I have to carry around the track).
Any training
programs I should follow? Any books
I should read? Anyone with experience
of being overweight and running
a half marathon? Is it even possible?
Answer:
You can find half marathon (and
just about any other) training programs
on various places on the web. Runners
World did a whole thing (including
training) in last months issue.
Most of them involve running some
base mileage three or so times a
week (possibly substitution an equivelent
time of crosstraining) and then
doing longer runs one day to work
up the 13+ distance. I went from
Couch Potato to full marathon in
6 months, so if you want to do it,
don't let people disuade you from
trying.
I started
out on the treadmill on the gym,
just trying to run as long as I
could. When I got up to about 2
miles (took maybe a month and a
half) I started looking for like
a 5K race. I found the DC Marathon
had a training program that was
about to start, so I did 20 weeks
with them. Essentially, the group
met for a long run (starting at
3 miles and working up) one day
and you had a certain number of
miles to do the
rest of the week (started at 6 miles
I think and worked up to 18). Around
the time I could do six miles, they
sent everybody out to do a 10K race
(65 minutes for me) and then resorted
everybody by 10K time. I trained
at ~12:00 (sometimes a little faster).
I was torn between trying to do
the marathon at a 5:00 time (11:20
pace or so) or running with the
group I trained with at 12:00, but
finally decided, that this
being my first, I'd do the latter.
I had a nice fun run and came in
at 5:11.
I took up
running with the aim of running
a half marathon within 6 months
and it worked out fine. Be very
careful not to try to do too much
too fast - to try to increase mileage
too fast is the quickest way to
injury. Look at some websites for
training schedules. The Runners
World site seems a good place to
start - I'm following a marathon
training programme I got there,
and it seems to be working
ok.
