complete beginner aiming for half marathon in a year

Helix

ok so im hoping that posting in here will somehow ensure i don't give this up. basically i had to give up football when i was 17 (im 29 next week) due to a fairly bad couple of injuries in quick succession. for years i was paranoid to really do anything in case id have a recurrence, but the older i get the more i realise im just being lazy.

so, ive decided that im going to see if i can get myself from absolute zero to being able to run a half marathon on may 5th 2013. started with a few short jogs a couple of weeks ago, then some stuff came up and i conveniently forgot about it til now. so tonight i decided that im going to just start again

so tonight was:

1km walk
1.5km run
1km walk
0.5km run
0.5km walk
0.5km run

time: 35mins 24seconds

right now im carrying a lot of weight after bulking up while living with the in-laws (mother in law is italian and a hell of a cook... so you can guess how that went), so i'm looking to lose that with regular runs. not sure if height helps with running, but im just shy of 6'6 so i've got a long stride which im hoping might make this a bit easier :P

so yeah, let's see how this goes i suppose! wish me luck

*edit*

i should add, i've got absolutely no designs on a particular pace or anything like that for the half marathon, just it's completion. ill worry about pace the following year

fizzyorange

Fair play, I wish you the best of luck.

It's great to see other people here starting from scratch too.

Helix

unfortunately tonight was my first run since that post. it's too warm for me to run in the mornings at the moment and there were a spate of lateish dinners up til tonight. ive told everyone involved that there's no more eating anything heavy after about 5pm any more, since i usually run around 1030pm. i figure that'll give me enough time

had a better time today, and i ran a bit more - though i didnt bother checking my nike+ to see the run/walk breakdowns. definitely ran a fair bit more, but walked slower during my recovery minutes so the time wasn't that much better. still though im happy that there was an improvement because i wasn't feeling 100% today

stats pulled from nike+ are:

distance: 5.00km
time: 33mins 57secs (1min 27sec improvement)

KM
1
6:55 -- 6'55"/km
KM
2
13:37 - 0:12 (2%) 6'42"/km
KM
3
20:42 + 0:22 (5%) 7'05"/km
KM
4
27:29 - 0:17 (4%) 6'47"/km
KM
5
*Fastest
33:50 - 0:26 (6%) 6'21"/km

hopefully ill be able to follow that up with a slightly better one again tomorrow, then ive a break day (as recommended by a runner the missus knows)

Helix

fizzyorange wrote: »

Fair play, I wish you the best of luck.

It's great to see other people here starting from scratch too.

cheers! best of luck to yourself too. im hoping that this forum will come in handy when it starts to get hard and i want to take the easy route and not run

got a goddamn blister tonight that im not happy about. i won't be impressed if that slows me down tomorrow as i get married on friday, then have to go to LA on business the following week so im not going to get much running done after this coming thursday for a week or so (im damned if im running around california in 30 degree heat)

Helix

Really annoyed tonight. I knew the weather was still very humid but I still decided I was gonna give it a go. Managed my longest nonstop run at about 2.75km then took a .25km walk to get myself back to normal but genuinely couldn't get my breath at all in the heat so canned the run at the 3km mark on Nike+

Ran my fastest km, my fastest mile and was feeling good til I bloody well stopped. I know I probably could've gone another km had I kept going, but once the rhythm was gone and I consciously noticed the closeness of the air I was done

Definitely a mental wall issue and that's why I'm annoyed. I felt fine after a few minutes of casual walking once I had given up which makes it even more annoying

Argh goddammit

Silver lining is that I know I can do 2.5km straight in close to 25 degrees, so if nothing else I can do a couple of 2km runs during the day and work on improving pace



*edit*

just checked the weather... it's 32 degrees outside with the humidity. maybe i was being a little harsh on myself

Nike+ Stats:

Distance: 3.03km
Time: 18mins 54secs (1minute 48secs better than my best 3km time previously)

1
6:23 -- 6'23"/km
KM
2
*Fastest
12:20 - 0:25 (6%) 5'57"/km
KM
3
18:39 + 0:22 (6%) 6'19"/km

*second edit*

so i beat my best 1km speed twice tonight. did i run too fast for the conditions in that case? 32 degrees isn't exactly cool going for a paddy

Red Belly

In my 40s I went from complete beginner to half marathon in a little over 6 months and completed a full marathon within a year so it definitely can be done.

If I were to have it to do all over again I would have taken things a lot slower (in terms of increasing the distance-I run slow anyway!). I definitely struggled with a lot of niggly injuries that can almost entirely be attributed to doing too much too soon.

That would be my biggest piece of advice, take things nice and easy. This is a lifestyle change and you have plenty of time to build up your running capacity. Aim for a 5k, then a 10k then a half.

I now have as a sacrosanct rule that I never run two days in a row. It's also a good idea to cross-train regularly. For a few months before I started running I worked out in a gym and I had one of the instructors devise a "weight loss" training programme for me. He calculated my optimum heart rate for burning fat and I wore a heart-rate monitor while using the machines. The monitor synced with the machines and controlled the workout intensity to keep my heart rate in the fat-burning zone. This always turned out to be a much lower intensity workout than I would have done without the monitor and the pounds fell off while I was doing that type of workout.

If you're like me you'll need to be wary of 'goal creep': as you improve you'll start aiming for increasingly ambitious targets. You'll start out aiming just to finish a half marathon but then you'll want to do it in under two hours or whatever and then you'll be disappointed if you do it in 2:00:01 even though that will be a major achievement! It's a good idea to have a series of goals, eg: 'A' goal = finish a half in under two hours; B goal = finish a half in under 2:15; C goal = finish and have a good day!

If you bring the ipod on your runs there are quite a few recreational runners with podcasts that are full of useful tips. The following are some that I listen to or have listened to and as a beginner training and running on my own I've found them to be a great source of useful tips and inspiration. They also make me feel part of a running community while still training on my own. The hosts are experienced marathoners but don't let that put you off!

The Running with the Pack podcast is hosted by an experienced recreational runner and is full of lots of common sense useful tips.

Running in the Centre of the Universe is another one and Phedippidations is a one with a somewhat philosophical outlook!

All of the above are US-based. 'Marathon Talk' is a podcast from the UK and there is a lot more emphasis on elite runners and very good amateurs but there is still a lot of stuff for your average Joe.

Well done on making this lifestyle choice and on the progress you've made so far. Keep it going!

rb

Pacing Mule

Hi Helix,

Welcome to the logs. I'm on a similar journey myself having started from scratch in January. I was (still am! but just not as much) overweight and on my first run couldn't run for a minute at a time. This was on the couch to 5k program. My original aim was a 5 mile race in June. Now it's for this years full marathon.

Your first post / run was the equivalent of week 5 or 6 of the couch to 5k program and indeed your total 5k time of 35 minutes was only a fraction slower than I did my first 5k which was 7 weeks into my training !

As far as I'm concerned you are coming off a much stronger starting base than I am. I can confidently predict that if you keep this up (and the logs are fantastic motivation to do so) you won't wait until 2013 for your half marathon. It will be well within your grasp sooner than that. Of course that will be your own choice though !

Best of luck !