Couch to half marathon prep
Yes, the raccoon is still well and alive, one would say more than ever. I haven’t become roadkill yet on my runs, and I hope it stays that way. I’ve been off regular blogging for some time now, and I’m not expecting to be, due to personal matters.
My last post was about my beginnings with running, and this one will be the continuation. I promise I’m not turning to a running blog, but because that’s what I’ve been passionate about lately, this is the topic that I write about (also it doesn’t require as much thinking as my regular topics ;])
Okay, so far it has been 174.8km, 43 runs, and 13 weeks of consistent running. What a journey! I’m proud of myself and my 5k time improvement, but obviously I’m working on building up the mileage more now. My current longest run was 15km and I’m now adding 2km each week* to my long run until I get to 21km (HM).
- I’ve been increasing my mileage conservatively, and I’m recovering great and without any issues. In case it changes, I will pause the increments or make them smaller.
Current strava PR's
- Day 1: Easy run
- Day 2: Recovery
- Day 3: Long run
- Day 4: Recovery
- Day 5: Easy run
- Day 6: Recovery
- Day 7: Alternate workouts:
- Week 1: 5 × 1 km @ 5K pace, 90 s jog
- Week 2: 6–8 × 400 m @ 90% max effort / 200 m easy jog/walk
- Every 3-4 weeks: 5K/10K race
During the recovery days or after the easy runs, I do running-specific strengthening exercises with resistance bands/dumbbells and plyometrics. I’m glad I listened to runners who begged others to train for running, not only by running. I feel like I would already be injured or at least in pain if I didn’t do this. In fact, I am very scared of injuring myself, and I’m taking this very seriously. ESPECIALLY because I was mostly sitting on my sorry ass all day.
Allocating time to do strengthening exercises is the best investment I’ve made, but if I had to say what my best gear investments were, it would be:
- Comfortable max cushion daily trainers
- Salomon running vest (yes, I don’t care about the stereotype, and in fact, I will do trail runs)
- Garmin watch and heart rate monitor strap
I’ve heard that running socks are a great thing to have, and I’m planning to buy them someday, but I’ve no blister issues yet (thankfully)
Also, I’m back to working out as I promised that someday I would! I don’t feel like going to the gym, so my exercise choices are limited, but I’m doing it, and hopefully with muscle memory it will be faster to get back to the old times.
That’s pretty much it for now.
See you soon, raccoon.
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