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Half-marathon
Sep. 11th, 2005 04:04 pmI saw someone post on the LJ ann arbor-ypsilanti communitythat he was looking for someone to train with for the Detroit Marathon Oct. 23. I went to the marathon page and saw they have a 5-k "Fun" walk/run, and a half-marathon. The marathon and half-marathon cross over to Canada and back; I think a bi-national marathon is pretty cool! My goal is that by October next year, I want to be able to run a half-marathon. I don't necessarily think I'll actually sign up for the Detroit run, but I'm setting the goal to improve my time over the next year so that I could if I wanted to.
I noticed that for the half-marathon, you needed to be able to run/jog fast enough to do the first 8 miles in two hours (something about getting you in and out of the tunnel by 9:30 a.m.). That equates to about 4 miles per hour, or a 15-minute mile. Right now, I can run consistently for 30-40 minutes at a 3.8 mph pace, so I don't think the goal is that far out of reach. When I started back to the gym in Dec. 2003, it took me 18 months to improve my pace from about 19:30 per mile to being able to run a mile in just about 16 minutes. So in 13 months, I think I can improve my time to under 15 minutes per mile-- I'm going to arbitrarily shoot for 14:30. I need to build some more stamina, too, though, because that's a committment of 4 hours(+/-).
Right now, twice a week, I'm doing 20-30 minute sessions that consist of 5-min. warmup, 10-20 min. at 3.8 mph, and 5-min. cool-down, and then once a week, a longer session around 40-45 min. I think I'm going to try to lengthen my once-a-week longer 40-min. sessions to an hour (5-min. warm-up, 50 min. at my top pace, 5 min. cool-down) each week, at around 3.9 to 4 mph to start, and see how it goes from there.
I noticed that for the half-marathon, you needed to be able to run/jog fast enough to do the first 8 miles in two hours (something about getting you in and out of the tunnel by 9:30 a.m.). That equates to about 4 miles per hour, or a 15-minute mile. Right now, I can run consistently for 30-40 minutes at a 3.8 mph pace, so I don't think the goal is that far out of reach. When I started back to the gym in Dec. 2003, it took me 18 months to improve my pace from about 19:30 per mile to being able to run a mile in just about 16 minutes. So in 13 months, I think I can improve my time to under 15 minutes per mile-- I'm going to arbitrarily shoot for 14:30. I need to build some more stamina, too, though, because that's a committment of 4 hours(+/-).
Right now, twice a week, I'm doing 20-30 minute sessions that consist of 5-min. warmup, 10-20 min. at 3.8 mph, and 5-min. cool-down, and then once a week, a longer session around 40-45 min. I think I'm going to try to lengthen my once-a-week longer 40-min. sessions to an hour (5-min. warm-up, 50 min. at my top pace, 5 min. cool-down) each week, at around 3.9 to 4 mph to start, and see how it goes from there.
