Half marathon

by

My half marathon training plan

TJ has been helping me with a plan for our half marathon that is coming up on the 17th of next month.  Yesterday morning before work he came by to pick up something he had left the night before and we eat brownies for breakfast and talked running.  I finally put two and two together and now have a plan rather than just running 5-7 miles a day.  You can read my plan on the “Run Plan” tab above the top picture on this page.

Basically our plan is to run regular runs mixed with tempo (fast pace) and hill runs.  I really think this will be a good thing.  I’ve noticed that after I run a 5K, I generally run at a faster pace the following week.  I am sure there is a scientific way to explain this, but it seems that expending a lot of cardiovascular effort in a race helps me run my later runs easier.  Before this last 5K, I was running in the 9:00 pace.  I ran my 5K in a 7:08 pace and now, with general ease, I am running about an 8:30 to 8:40 average pace.

All that to say, adding a run that is at a fast pace (with warm up miles and cool down miles before and after) and running hill runs should make a big difference.  Just to make it clear, everyday is a hill run in our neighborhood.  However about a mile from home is a hill that is almost a mountain.  It goes straight up for what must be a quarter mile.  It is hard to run up, but harder to run down since it is so steep.

Today is my tempo run.  It should be interesting.  I don’t think I would have much issue with it, except that at 50 years old, my hips and back tend to hurt a lot after running.  If I remember to ice my lower back afterwards, it isn’t as bad, but I’ve been forgetting lately.

26 days and counting until our half marathon!  Now I’m not just running, I’m training.  Life is good!!!

by

Why I run

I have a couple of reasons that I run.

To begin with, I always regretted not running with my Father and siblings back in the 80s and 90s. My dad began running around age 55 and ran upward of 15 marathons before he stopped around age 74. He eventually passed away due to lung cancer. My late sister and my brothers also ran and all ran marathons with him. I was in college when he started and then ended up 800 miles away raising my family later on. Well here I am now dad, 50 years old and running my first half marathon. Here I am now KT. You always encouraged me to at least get on a treadmill once a day as you saw me gaining weight and getting sick more often. Here I am. I run because of you. I wish you both were here to see.

Secondly, I run because it is the one competition I can enter that has a level playing field. Sure there are those like TJ that are naturals. But for the most part, I know that if I run 6 times a week and slowly increase my mileage, one day I can be good, at least for my age. I am not an athlete and never was. I was the last to be picked for teams when I was a kid. Really, sports didn’t interest me much. Now at 50, I run. I’ve run almost a thousand miles in the past 10 months and am one of the 10% of runners that get through the year without getting hurt. Each run I pray for God to keep me from getting hurt. He knows I have to run and why I am running.

Running, as I said, makes a level playing field. Thus I started running 10 months ago and this month came in 22nd out of 690 in my last 5K. I didn’t come in 22nd and 3rd in my age group because I am a natural. I did so because I run 6 days a week whether it is hot, cold, raining or snowing.

I cannot make an excuse.

I just run.

by

Preparing for our first half marathon

TJ, RS and myself are going to run in our first half marathon in a couple of weeks.  It is really exciting to be preparing for something longer than a 5K.  I asked TJ, my running partner and coach, about what he was doing to prepare and he sent me this link:

http://m.runnersworld.com/workouts/workouts-your-better-half-marathon

TJ really knows what he is doing when it comes to training.  I am a little less methodical.  My prep until now has been running between 35-45 miles a week.  I run 6 days a week and take Monday off.  Sunday is my long day.  So overall I run 5-6 miles a day and 10 on Sunday.  I created an app for my iPhone using FileMaker Go that helps me prepare my week and for the most part I keep to my plan.

Now, I need something more than just running my run.  I want to run my first half marathon under a 9 minute pace.  The fastest I have run 13 miles is 9:20 pace. So now I need a plan for the next few weeks.  I can run the mileage, but I also want to run the time.

Today is my off day so tomorrow starts the plan.  Lord willing it will be a great race.

by

Run @ 49

In July of 2011 I weighed 278 lbs. I tried to begin running and ran 1/4 mile and had to walk home.  That was then, this is now.  I now weigh 190 lbs and average running 30 – 40 mile a week.  I’ve run 5 5K races and am about to run my first half marathon in February.

This is my story…