Half Marathon Training - Week 1, Day 1

I'm planning to run in the Greer Earth Day Half on April 25. It will be my very first half marathon. But on March 6, I will run the Reedy River 10K as a way to gauge my progress and make sure I really want to do the half... 13.1 miles still scares me at this point.

I'm somewhat following the 13-week training plan by iRUN Greenville but with my own modifications. For my long runs, I'm using a run 4 min, walk 1 min ratio and plan to use this same ratio for the half marathon itself. I'm doing my own tempo intervals and will be running hilly routes instead of speed or track work since there really isn't a running track near where I live. I may throw in an occasional trail run for fun once the trails dry out...it's been a wet winter.

I met iRUN Greer at Greer Memorial Campus and no surprise that I was the only one that is currently using this method so I was on my own this morning. Maybe more people will show up next week but anyone in the Greer/Spartanburg area is welcome to join us...and it's free. There is a walk-to-run group already in progress (they did week 3, day 3 today) and a few others training for the half that are up to 7-8 miles, so there is something for everyone.

But back to my training run which was for 1 hour using the 4/1 run to walk ratio. The first 4 intervals or 20 mins felt great. I never had any difficult breathing with my 10:00 - 10:30 pace or had any pain in my legs, hips or ankles as I sometimes do. Then all of a sudden, it started getting really hard and the 4 min interval started to feel longer and longer and the 1 min walk break felt shorter and shorter. Around 50 mins, my hip flexors started to hurt but I only had 10 more mins to go so I just pushed forward. Beth, the coach of iRUN Greer, joined me at that point and she pushed the pace a little faster which is never a bad thing. The last 30 secs of the last interval was uphill so I decided to give it a final push up the hill knowing the end was near. It actually felt better in my hips and legs, probably because running uphill forces me to use proper form but my breathing was quickly becoming out of control. Overall, it was a pretty good run, still a bit too cold for me with temps in the high 30s and a light breeze. I'm so ready for spring and warmer temps...but not the humidity.