Enthusiastic or Obsessive?

One thing that I am finding with my training program is that it certainly doesn't get boring.

I always seem to be at one extreme or the other.  Either raring to go or sore, achy and wanting to go back to bed!

This week however, the enthusiasm is bordering on obsessiveness.  Despite being aware of the dangers of over training, I am struggling to take a rest day.

I had a rest day scheduled for last Monday, but the kids got new scooters and I ran to the school and back with them twice = 5k .  Each day, I promise myself I will take a rest, but I am loving the buzz that the exercise brings and because my body is more used to this level of exercise now, I find it easier to ignore the niggley aches and pains.

Also, I think I am worried that if I take a break, I will never get to the stage where I can run a half marathon.

So today I am promising myself that I will take that rest day and just run a bit faster/further tomorrow.

I'll let you know how I get on!

Scream If You Wanna Go Faster!

A real roller coaster couple of days so far this week:

• Amazing Tri training with Lynley on Saturday                                 - Yay!
• Hurt my ankle so couldn't train for a few days                                - Boo!
• Finalised my half marathon training program                                   -Yay!
• Had to miss the first day of my training program as ankle still hurts - Boo!
• Hill Training with Lea, easier than I had expected                           -Yay!
• Bad training session today.  Hot, slow and painful                          -Boo!
• Sat here watching biggest loser, feeling inspired                             -Yay!
• Wish I hadn't eaten chocolate before biggest loser (feeling guilty)   -Boo!
• Met with Lea and Denise today and feel inspired and motivated    -Yay!

It's tough sometimes when you are having a bit of an up and down week.  When I look back to other times when I have tough weeks, it feels like I am never going to get past it, and a short time can feel like an eternity.

There have been some really good times this week as well as some pretty bad times.  I know that I just need to keep at it and it will get easier.

Finding the Right Half Marathon Training Plan

As I am trying to increase my running from 5k level, to a half marathon (and maybe eventually to a marathon, Eek!), I have been reading marathon and half marathon book written by Sam Murphy.  Some of the facts that he came up with to do with marathons, I found quite astounding.

In the process of running a marathon you will:

•     Take approx 40,000 steps
•     Shrink by as much as 2cms
•     Increase your heart beat to about 150 beats per minute
•     Breathe approx. 40 times per minute (compared to 12-18 at rest)
•     Pump 25-35 Litres of blood around your body per minute (compared to 4-5 litres at rest)

(source: Marathon and half marathon – Sam Murphy, 2009)

Phew!  Makes me tired just thinking about it.

I have also been doing a lot of online research to try and find the right training programme for me to follow.  It has been a bit tricky as most of them are shown in miles rather than kilometres, so I have to keep converting them using the following chart.

Lea suggested that I look at the Hal Higdon half marathon training plans (thanks Lea :-) and the advanced plan is ideal for the stage I am at currently (able to run an hour at a time)  http://www.halhigdon.com/training/51130/Half-Marathon-Training-Guide .

I copied his training program into an excel spreadsheet, converted it to kilometres and also added in the additional training that I have with Val for swim training and Lynley from Tribrown Coaching (https://www.facebook.com/groups/136720836457684/ ). 

I like the fact that you can change the plan to suit your own needs.  I should really have another rest day in there each week, but I am hoping that the swimming will count like a rest day as it is cross training rather than running, and also, I often find that I have enforced rest days, if the kids are off sick, or on holidays, so I will just take rest days when I need to.

Runners world also offers some good training plans as well as some useful calculators (race time predictor, race split band etc) http://www.runnersworld.co.uk/racing/big-half-marathon-index/4179.html.  They also offer Garmin downloads for those of you with Garmin Watches.

Other training plans that I looked at were:

http://www.shoeclinic.co.nz/beginner-half-marathon.html

http://www.coolrunning.com/engine/2/2_4/144.shtml

The other thing that I am learning about, is how to eat properly for the half marathon as you are supposed to practice this before your long training runs to ensure you don’t get any nasty surprises on the day: http://www.ehow.com/how_2034729_eat-half-marathon.html

I will continue to add more info as I find it.

If you have come across any good plans or info about half marathon training, then please let me know in the comments below.