Half marathon - any one doing one?

[Cherryminx]

There was a thread last year which I looked at in admiration as I struggled through C25K and then went on to run a 10K. So I can hardly believe that in a fit of madness I've signed up for a half Marathon in May.

Training starts tomorrow! Would anyone like to join me?

Congrats 59! I didn't get a place :( got a London marathon place so shouldn't grumble

I did it! 2 hrs 27 but I reckon that's OK for a first time. Really tired... haven't felt as knackered as this after a run for ages.

Fantastic FiftyNine, when is it?

I think that's a really great time Irian, bloody well done! Remember in an actual race you will probably naturally go quicker too with all that adrenaline buzzing through your system.

I get that LadyCassandra, I remember trying to run on holiday on the Med and it was horrendous for my poor Irish blood even at 9am. I'm a tad jealous thinking of all your lovely sunshine as I'm looking out at the rainy, freezing day here.

Well done Irian, that is a good time! And now you know you've got it on the legs. The memory of that can carry you through a few k on the hard days!

Did you feel like you were edging on the side of caution where you don't want to go too fast at the beginning in case you don't make it to the end, then when you get to the end you think that you probably could have pushed it a bit harder?

Or are you the opposite where you go off quite hard and then hang on for dear life?

I have a theory that people are either one or the other and that they apply the same rules in other areas of their life too

My friend I sometimes run with and I are total opposites in that regard. I can't get my head round how she has the bravery to blast off the start and she can't understand why I'd have my last kilometres as the quickest!

FiftyNine I'll go have a gander at that thread! Thanks.

Great news FiftyNine

Fantastic Irian, brilliant to get that under your belt.

I'm definitely on the side of caution Aye, DD is the same, with DH and DS the opposite. I always worry that I won't finish if I start too fast and I also want to enjoy it. I've always struggled with sport of any sort, maybe there's a lack of confidence for me too? Always that slight doubt that I can do it.

I've had a very sluggish week on the training front, had to miss out an interval session because of work. Today's not looking good on the parkrun front weather wise but hoping to do seven miles tomorrow, the longest yet. But I do need to source some jelly babies today!

I always start slow and speed up, especially if there's a hill coming!
First hill repeat session on the plan this morning, did all 10, still amazed I managed it. Nice to have a good session, gives a wee confidence boost.
Good luck with 7 miles chutneypig

Nope I'm the opposite in life than running Aye. Life I'm full of enthusiasm and energy then run out of steam and frequently cba finishing things. Running, I dawdle for the first half, speed up the second and go hell for leather as much as I can at the end. 'Finish strong' as I've always been told to do :)

11.5 done this morning. Tried a caffeine gel today and was fine. I think I noticed a difference with them? Not sure if it was just a coincidental good run where I didn't flag at all. I checked the electrolyte tabs and they have twice the amount of caffeine in them compared to the gels so maybe that's why they made me feel weird, especially the way I overheat and guzzle liquid in the gym.

Did a class last night that involves lots of different movements. My IT band has been very niggly since. Didn't annoy me running but can really feel it now. Will be an ibuprofen and rest day tomorrow I think.

Good luck for tomorrow's run chutney and well done on the hill repeats emummy. Ten is some going!

Seven miles done I felt much better than last week and overall pace was much better, I'll put that down to the jelly babies! I made sure to have a snack in the car for when I was done, so felt fine after.

Well done on the hills emummy, sounds like hard work but I'm sure it's done a lot of good.

How's the niggle doing today Sirona?

Hello all, can I join you? I have signed up for the Edinburgh half in May. Never done a half marathon before. I did a 10 mile about 18 months ago and discovered the day after the race that I was pregnant with dd. I am just getting back to that sort of distance after pregnancy and recovering from a c - section.
I did 15k today. Very windy and rainy so it was a slog. I am mostly just doing one long run per week at the moment but plan to add in some 5ks and intervals once it gets a little lighter in the evening (and I get dd to take a bottle before bed rather than bf).

Welcome Jaggy well done for running with a little one!

Well done on your 7 miles chutney, glad the jelly babies helped

Hope your IT Band is better today Sirona. I think I'd had 3 or 4 caffeine gels over the course of a long run when I was feeling weird that time, maybe 1 or 2 are OK

emummy tell me more about hill repeats. Where I live it is very flat, but I am doing the Sheffield HM in a couple of months and that is super-hilly. I have a hill about 2 miles away

Well done Irian!

The Royal Parks isn't until October. I think I will be doing HMs in March, May, June, Oct and Dec this year.

Oh FiftyNine hill repeats are such fun, not! I did a 2 mile easy run, then 2 sets of 5 repeats up a 250m hill with jog down in between. Then one mile easy run afterwards. You can also do ones where you run up and down repeatedly at the same constant pace but I'm not so keen on them!

Hi Jaggy. Well done for taking on a half marathon so soon after a little one and bf too. I had a section myself with my first and it takes a lot of recovery I found - some friends breezed through theirs though.

Yay for jelly babies chutney!

The IT band is miles better thanks. It's been an ongoing annoyance or pain sometimes from the summer. Suspect it may originate from my hips so going to try to do some work on them. Probably should go to the physio again but there's always something else to spend the money on at the moment.

That's a lot of hms FiftyNine. I was considering doing another in June after the one in March, what sort of mileage are you thinking of doing after March? Are you going to keep your long runs up there or scale them down again? I only had the one caffeine gel and one non caffeine.

I don't mind hills but hate hill repeats. My town's on a hill and I'm half way up so I'm always running up or down at some stage. There's two particluarly nasty gradient ones that I try to avoid unless I'm feeling particularly masochistic that day as I can't get up them without stopping to walk, they're that steep for me.

Hello all. Training is coming along and have finally started to get up to some reasonable distances - 5 miles or so. Managed to get out in the daytime on Sunday and even more miraculously managed to run when it wasn't raining. So had a nice time running around in the woods near where goes horse riding. Its a long old slog up a hill,very muddy but then lovely views when you get there and then, downhill all the way.

Strength training not going so well - excercises are boring aren't they?

Irian - well done! Was the book good too? I normally run to music as the rhythm keeps me going.

Hi al, I did 16km on Sunday which went well, but my legs are still aching today (Tuesday) even though I did a recovery run yesterday.
I think it may be my new trainers but I bought two pairs and the other pair are the same as my old ones, so I'm breaking them in and hoping it's nothing more serious.

LadyC am not surprised your legs are aching - 16 km is a long way. I am rather old and my legs ache the whole time.

Have done 5 miles and 4 miles this week but keep having to stop to go to the loo. It drives me mad. May have to resort to Imodium for the actual thing as I can't seem to find any pattern in it.

The only thing I can think of doing is eating exactly the same thing every day for a week and running at different times to see what works but that is v difficult as am always rushing around ferrying DCs to different things.

Was meant to do swimming today but it was so cold so did cycling while listening to the Archers.

DD and I are going to a junior park run at the weekend. Hope that my mummy coaching has been good enough.

Sirona I try to do 8-10 miles on Sundays (but have not had time to go that far so far this year!), plus parkrun and one or two shorter runs of 3 or 4 miles in the week. I am never going to be fast - I'm a 2:20-2:30 plodder depending on the conditions - but I like the distance and the headspace that comes with a long run.

Well done on your distance Cassandra

Enjoy junior parkrun Cherry and DD

Maybe just your legs getting used to the trainers LadyC? I have to rotate my shoes in gradually. Hope you're feeling better now.

Yeah it can be a bit of pain finding the time for the longer runs FiftyNine. It's one of the things that puts me off the idea of training for a marathon.

That would be extremely annoying CherryMinx, have you tried a cup of coffee a while before to get things moving before the run ? I have to go to classes for strength training, they are indeed very boring to do in the house.

Have had a lazy week, family bereavement and all that that entails. Didn't do my long run this week, no time, only managed 8 miles but pushed it faster the last couple of miles rather than the usual plod. Decide to try and time myself doing 100 burpees - gave up at 50 and have two cracking bruises on my knees as a result Back at it tomorrow.

Not run this week as I have my 10 mile race in the morning
I am so looking forward to it I have been itching to run all week. But I want fresh legs for my hilly challenge tomorrow. Course profile is hills, hills and more hills with very little downhill for 7.5 miles. Then downhill from there. I am not bothered by time tomorrow I just want to finish it and get the heart shaped medal.

Best of luck for your race today Sven, hope it goes well!

Good luck today Sven, look forward to hearing about it.

How did the juniors go Cherryminx?

That sounds like a rough week Sirona, hope you're OK. Burpees are my nemesis. Fifty is very impressive. I prefer classes too for strength. Julian Michaels DVDs I also enjoy and I try and go for ones with more of a weight element but I think I need someone shouting at me.

Plan for today is a shortish long run, according to my plan, so taking the DC along too. We found a great local parkrun which is very hilly, so we're going to do that more for training.

Week 2 complete, fun with intervals through the week, nice easy 9 miles this morning in the freezing cold! More hill repeats next week, hope the snow goes away.
Well done all on running efforts. I hate burpees, did total of 40 during bootcamp last week, yuck!

Hi chutney - junior park run went well. DD was one of the older kids and after managing to break through the seried ranks of little boys wielding light sabres she got into her stride and ran the whole way. So she was pleased with herself.

I did 6 miles yesterday and 2 mile "recovery run" today which felt like legs made of lead. Am in awe of emummy "easy" 9 miles.

How was the race sven. Hope the medal is shiny.

That was a fab race. The hills were hard one as you ran down all you could see was a steep uphill straight away. It looked like a rollercoaster.
I upped my jelly baby intake to three each mile from mile 3.
I had a few mishaps!
The first being I didn't start my garmin properly I got almost a mile in before realising
Then I had to stop due to choking on a jelly baby all was good though just walked a bit to get recover.

My finish time was 1 hour 57minutes I was aiming for 2 hours.
My last 10 mile I finished in 2hours 4 so very happy.
Got my heart medal a rose and goody bag with some Goodies from Lush too

Well done on your 10mile Sven. That sounds like a really tough course.
I did 15k this morning. Quite a bit faster than last week although I expect much of that was the better weather. It has been lovely and sunny here today. Quite icey too but a great improvement on last week's rain and gale force winds. I need to start adding in some shorter runs and intervals. I think someone at my work has started a lunchtime running group so I might investigate that.

Brilliant Sven well done! Sounds like a real challenge. Enjoy those intervals jaggy!