I am coming to crunch time on my half marathon training. I needed to do a 10 mile run last week. For a new runner (less than 3 months), that is not something you do very fast. To help me slow down, I decided to run for 2 hours instead of for 10 miles. The 2 hour run put me at just under 11 miles. So I accomplished my goal and did not feel as though I needed to run fast.

This is the third really long run I have done. I did a 1 hour 20 minute run one week. The next week 1 hour 35 minutes and then the 2 hours this week. That goes against what the guidelines say. You should never add more than 10% to the time or distance from the week before. But, as a newbie, I feel compelled to break the rules a bit.

Half marathon distance is 13.1 miles. I will not actually be running a race. I will be running the same day as the Indy Mini is run, which is May 6.

Now the runs will taper to be shorter and I will have easier weeks giving my body the rest it needs to run the distance. Mentally I feel prepared since my goal is to run the half in 2 hours and 10 to 20 minutes. I ran almost that long this week and know that just a few more minutes longer is absolutely possible.

Categories: Running