Let’s start with the happy news.
If you follow me on Facebook or Twitter, you probably already know this, but on Friday I was officially accepted into the FitFluential ambassador program!
For those non-bloggers out there, this might not be too exciting, but I am puuuuumped and wanted to share the news. I’ve been wanting to join the FitFluential team for what feels like ages, and it has finally happened. Basically, as a new ambassador for the fitness community/network, I’ll be able to participate in various fitness campaigns and should have more opportunities to connect with companies.
It’s definitely a positive direction for Gettin’ My Healthy On. Can’t wait!
Now that you know my exciting news, I’ll get to the main point of this post: the beginning of my half marathon training! I spent awhile yesterday putting a 9-week plan together, since that’s how much time is left before my half marathon, and once it was completed, I came to a rude awakening.
According to the plan, it was day 1 of the 9 week training.
Sooooo I pulled myself together and went for a 5-mile run, which I completed in 44:43 for an average pace of 8:59. It was more like an obstacle course, though, because of all the branches and palm tree leaves all over the sidewalk from the crazy windy/rainy weather we’ve had lately.Since I’ve had a bit of a cold for the past week, this was also my first workout in a little while, so I was pretty pumped I did not die sub 9-minute miles.
The last time, and the only time, I ran a half marathon, I pretty much ran 6 to 8 miles like 4 days in a row every week with my friend. Needless to say, it wasn’t very organized. This time, I figured I’d follow a legitimate schedule.
After getting advice from my runner man friend, Matt, I wound up with the following 9-week half marathon training plan:
I’ll probably just take one rest day a week, but I worked in another day for more flexibility. Since I’m currently signed up for a boxing gym, my cross training and “light workout” days will probably be that. I believe I’m done with that in a couple weeks, though, so I’ll be able to dedicate more of my weekly workouts to training. (And I’ll make sure to post a recap of my boxing experience!)
On Thursdays, I have planned “hard” runs. Just to clarify, I mean this as running at a pace that is faster than your typical “comfortable” speed. You can also incorporate interval training or fartleks to work on speeding up your running. Since I don’t have a time goal for this race, I simply want to build my mileage back up and finish it in a decent time.
Questions for you:
Are you currently training for a race?
Do you follow detailed plans? Or do you just wing it?
It’s officially March! What are you most looking forward to this month? We’re going to Vegas at the end of the month for a relay race Matt’s running!
Melissa says
Yay! Congrats on FitFluential! I got accepted too and sushi feel like I was waiting forever. Worth it though!
You can do it with training! I was skeptical of doing a short training period for a half too but you have so much running background that you’ll do great!
Katie says
Thank you for the encouragement!! And congrats to you as well!! So pumped to see what being an ambassador is all about. 🙂
Ash says
You crack me up. Oh, let me see. I’ll just go run 5 miles, seeing as how you haven’t even been running a ton and you run under 9 minute miles. You go. You go, girl.
Katie says
Bahaha Oh, I’ll go.