After a 2:06 half marathon with the double stroller, I don't really have any lingering doubts about my physical readiness to resume training. I've always thought I'd run another marathon to "get back in shape" after this second baby, and, with three of my teammates already signed up for fall marathons, doing another full was a tempting thought.
...but my head just isn't in "full mode" right now for a variety of reasons:
- It feels like I "just" did a marathon. Even though I wasn't training all-out, I did train pretty well for Publix less than a year ago.
- New baby = still getting used to everything... oh, and I'm not sleeping.
- New job + new baby = still figuring out our new schedules, and I'm not sure how training is going to go with all the new stuff in my life.
- When I trained for Chicago, I was also preparing for the Sweet Adelines International contest, and that was SUPER stressful. This year, my chorus is, again, slated to compete at the international contest in October. Doing a marathon that will interfere with bringing my A game to that endeavor is a no-go.
So, I've decided to try for a spring half instead. I've looked a ton of races, and decided that the one that fits our calendar (and my other requirements) best is the Berry Half in Rome, Georgia.
- Race date between February and early May? March 7
- PR-friendly Comes well-recommended by friends, and the elevation map is agreeable
- within 7hr drive or 2hr flight within 2hr drive
- ability to stay within walking or mass transit distance of the start/finish and restaurants maaaaaaaaybe not, but the town is super small, which means I don't mind dealing with parking/driving around
- race temps between 25 and 50 degrees check
- $100 or less registration check
And the bonus criteria:
- cool theme/name/shirts Nope, but that's alright.
- around 1000 finishers Nope, only 400ish, but that's alright too.
- kids race and/or 5K for my husband Kids race at 10:30 (2.5hr after half start)
- state I haven't raced in Nope, but that's also alright. The nearest states meeting this criteria are IN, WV, and AR... which all involve $$$ travel.
Goals
My current half PR is 1:47:02, set the day I found out I was pregnant. The idea of running any kind of distance in the low 8:XX/mi range still boogles my mind, but I figure setting a 1:45 tentative goal (but knowing I'll be totally pleased with whatever hard effort my body can execute at ~8mo postpartum) is a good plan.
According to Google, I should be able to do around a 47min 10K and a 22:30min 5K if I want a shot at 1:45. Those happen to be my respective PRs at those distances. I don't think I'm in PR shape right now, but it's worth going for it. Worst case, I figure out what I'm capable of right now and get a good twelve-ish weeks of training in the meantime.
Plans
This
I looked at the Women's Running plan, my past half plans, and some Hansons plans. All of them seemed like more work than I want to put in. lol. 40+ miles a week? 12x repeats? Tempo miles?
I took a look at my schedule (both current and what it will be in January), and decided I could commit to:
- Mon rest day
- Tues 6-8mi of easy, tempo, or other speedwork-esque miles that can be done as part of 10KTuesday
- Wed easy mileage, up to 5
- Thurs track workouts
- Fri easy mileage, up to 5
- Sat long runs, whatever it takes
- Sun easy mileage, up to 8
That's a max weekly of ~45, which fits nicely with what I'd need for a half.
In addition, I know that I want the following elements in my plan:
- tempo miles: I hate these, but I need them for mental stamina building
- more than just repeats for track workouts, but no more than 7mi total
- flexibility for the easy run mileage
- ability to take a second rest day during the week
So, I haven't crafted/found the right plan yet, but I'm hoping to nail that down this weekend, because there's only 95 days until RACE DAY!
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