This past Saturday was my first real-live Half Marathon. I signed up in early fall and located a plan in a RW that promised to get me across the finish line in 2:00:00 or under.
Any of you know that while I yes, I do run, I will never consider myself "a runner." I was looking at the opportunity to run a half-marathon as a way to get more running in my legs to ultimately better prepare me for the triathlons that I enjoy.
The following are reasons why I did not follow the plan exactly and therefore may have something to do with why I did not finish under 2 hours (2 hours, 8 minutes, 0 seconds to be exact).
1-the plan called for running about 4 days/week with a few rest/cross training days scattered throughout the plan. That's just too much running for this girl...I need to have some rides and some swims thrown in there. And Lord forbid I not get my chlorine fix. Good cross-training, right?
2-I have discovered one of my new FAVORITE workouts. Wednesday morning Road Rage (40-45 minute "spin bike class" followed immediately by trashing myself on the treadmill. Some will see this as a "brick" workout, which it is! I just simply choose to go balls to the wall. For example, two weeks ago I ran for 60 minutes at varying speeds on the mill following spin. Hello endorphins!!! To give you an idea how much I sweat that morning...I drank almost 60oz of my recovery beverage (nuun plus crystal light) and didn't pee till the afternoon. OOOPS. This wasn't in the plan - may have affected my running legs just a bit. I'm just sayin'
3-If the plan called for 11 miles at 10:26 pace I would do 11.5 miles at 10:14 pace. For example...
What I have learned:
1-I am not a single sport athlete (did I just call myself an athlete?)
2-I do believe I developed slightly more "running legs" through this training
3-I will do this again :) Full marathon anyone?
Full race report to follow...stay tuned!
Thanks for reading!
No comments:
Post a Comment