I just committed myself to running a half marathon on December 6th in the St. Jude Memphis Marathon Weekend. I used to run a lot, but I haven't ran in a long time and I'm 50 now, not 30. This half marathon is just a touch over 7 months away. For those of you with a lot of running experience, do you think it's possible to go from not running at all to being able to run 13.1 miles? Keep in mind, the goal isn't to do it quickly, but I would like to do it without stopping to walk. What do you think? Am I in over my head?
I am 45 and I did it in about 5 months training. I had to walk a little bit after about mile 10.5. I finished in 2:12.
That's great, and it's good to hear. I was thinking to myself that if I could manage a a 10 minute mile pace, it would still take 2 hours and 10 minutes. That seems like a long time to run at a 10 minute mile pace. To be honest, I don't have a specific pace or time that I want to shoot for yet.
I firmly believe if you build a good routine with a increase in training over time it wouldn't be that hard if you set your mind to it.
Even with walking I was at a 10:07 pace. I started out to fast and ran out of gas. It is easy to get caught up and take off like you are one of the fast runners. LOL
Yep, I know what it's like to get caught up in the moment and take off at a pace that you can't maintain. When I used to run I wasn't fast. I could maintain an 8 minute mile pace for around 7 miles. The absolute fastest I ever ran was a mile and a quarter in 7:15. After that it was a NAVY 1 1/2 mile PT test I did in 9:30. I was pleased with those, but that still isn't considered fast. I was a lot younger then too. I never did really try to go for longer distances though. There was one time that I decided to keep on going and ended up running 12 miles. I thought I was going to die. I learned that you don't just go from 7 miles max to 12 miles in one day.
It's like losing weight. Good diet and exercise. Getting in shape the same thing. oh also concentration and motivation. When I run I can run but it's not the same kind of running as when I'm concentrated and motivated.
There's some good training apps available for half marathons taking you from the couch to marathon. I'm using a couch to 10k in 14 weeks app. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Yeah I finished my last half race in about 2:15 and I walked the entire second half because my legs blew up on me. It is what I get for running an extremely hilly trail face in July in LA after a night of drinking...
Ouch. I can honestly say that I've never tried to run after a night of drinking. I know that would end badly. The more I think about it the more I'm sure that you're right. Seven months is a long time to train. I've just got to be sure and not get ahead of myself and try to do more than I'm ready to do. The only real problem I can see with this is the date. It's 6 December, which means I'm going to have to figure out how to work on distance training during the rut.
