Things are going well on the running front! Despite one of the busiest times in my life so far, we've managed to keep up with our training schedule, and as much as I try to deny it, I've made really significant progress!
I've finally identified a goal for myself for the half marathon, which is sneaking up on us ridiculously quickly (less than 3 months to go!). I'm really happy with this goal; it's manageable but still at this point will take some work to get there.
My goal: to cross the finish line.
See, they have this rule where if you're at a 16:00 pace or slower, they literally pick you up in a vehicle and cart you to the end, where you don't get a finisher medal. Mean, right? SO not in the Disney spirit. But I suppose it would be around 1 am, so I can't say I blame them. You may be thinking "eh, no sweat, Amy's been training for months and months, that won't be a problem at all..."
But I'm slow. Like, really slow. Still, after all this hard work. My endurance is most definitely improving, but my pace hasn't, which means that I'm still hovering around 15:00 on average. I have days where I'm under 14:00 and days where I'm up around 16:00. But the bottom line is that I'm slow. I'm sure it's the Galloway walking thing, which I still adore and find that I need pretty badly to get through a workout, and I'm not willing to give up.
I'm planning on starting some drills to work on speed and efficiency during my short 30-minute runs during the week.
But here's the bottom line: despite the snail-like pace, I feel great about all of this. While someone who is a natural athlete might have a different perspective and find the 15:00 mile completely unacceptable, I'm totally okay with my slowness. I'm getting out there, getting my body moving, and working towards a really exciting, healthy goal after a sedentary lifetime. Training for a half marathon as a beginner is relatively rare, and I'm cutting myself some slack for that. So while I may be slow, I'm still out there doing it, and at the risk of blowing my humble cover, I'm really proud. So excited for October!
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It is my belief that when competing in ANYTHING for the first time, your ultimate goal should be to finish. It's silly to put a time on it before you have your own "personal best" to beat. Go Amy! :)
ReplyDeleteHi,
ReplyDeleteHave you thought about using the Galloway method of training? You basically run for a set number of minutes and then walk for a set number of minutes---like 2 min run, walk for 1 min.
I used this method after not really training and ran 5 min, walk 1 min for the entire Disneyworld Full Marathon. I ended up with about a 12 min pace. You can get watches that will beep the intervals for you.....it really is quite do-able.
I'm now training for the NYC Full Marathon in November in which I will run (hopefully) the whole thing.
Good Luck with your half! It is more mental than anything else!