Over the winter and into this Spring I have been running what many would call 'junk' miles. They aren't junk to me, but they haven't been doing me much good. I haven't had a plan.
In my quest to get my weight under control, I also need to get some control over my running, in the hope that I won't be exhausted by the end of the week, and my body will have a chance to ditch some of the fat I'm carrying around.
I don't have any race plans at the moment, but I'm going to start running and training as if I do. I've decided to go with John Bingham's Run/Walk Half Marathon, which seems like a sensible distance to train for when I'm not really going to do an actual Half. Although...there is that World Wide Festival of Races in October and it would be good to be ready for that.
The Bingham plan is simple and can be found in his book Marathoning for Mortals, co-written by Coach Jenny Hadfield, M.A., CPT.
Week one starts with two 35 minute Run 3 min/Walk 2 min. - repeat 7 times; 2 days of 30 minutes of cross-training, 1 long run day - first week is 3 miles; and two rest days.
Times and distances increase each week until the Half Marathon is Run 4 minutes, Walk 1 minute throughout.
This is much more sensible than running every day for 4 or 5 miles and taking walk breaks as needed, with only one real rest day.
My plan is to finish this program, and that start right into it again, with the thought of doing marathon training next Spring (2010.) I want to complete a marathon before I turn 65, and that will be in February 2011. I have lots of work to do. Join me.
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I'm so glad to have found you on Twitter. I plan on using you. I figure that if I read about your plan enough, I might get inspired to start running. I've been losing weight using www.fatsecret.com as my tool, but now need to work on the exercise part. ick. Congratulations and can't wait to see you reach your goal!
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