Yesterday, in preparation for the Disney half-marathon that I will be running on January 9th, I ran a treadmill half marathon in 1 hour 54 minutes.
This leaves me at an average speed of 6.9473 miles per hour. (Calculated here: http://www.machinehead-software.co.uk/bike/speed_distance_time_calc.html)
I was thinking in my head that a half marathon was 13.2 miles, but a search I just did on Wikipedia shows that a full marathon is 26.22 miles, making the half marathon only 13.11 miles. This is good news! It means that my average speed was a tad higher.
My goal for these two months will be to dramatically increase my speed to complete the half in 1 hour 30 minutes or less. This means increasing my average speed to approximately 8.8 mph, an increase of nearly 2mph over my current time. Is it possible with 12 weeks to train?
Background: I have never been a runner and have never been involved in any sports. I did my first sprint distance off road triathlon this summer (.5 mi swim, 12 mi bike, 3.5 mile run) in 3 hours 11 minutes (the twelve mountain biking miles went across very technical terrain and I had to walk my bike at least half of the way). I am 5 feet 11 and 1/4 inches tall and weigh between 160 and 165 pounds. This past week a joined the New York University triathlon club, which meets Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays from 6:15 to 7:30 A.M.
In addition to triathlon club training I am going to distill my own training plan from the following online plans:
http://www.runnersworld.com/
http://www.jeffgalloway.com/
http://www.ironbridgerunner.
http://www.halhigdon.com/
I also hope to draw advice and inspiration from this interview with Samuel Wanjiru who holds the half marathon world record at 58 minutes 33 seconds (he also won the 2008 Beijing Olympic Marathon with an Olympic record of 2 hours 6 minutes and 32 seconds):
http://www.trackandfieldnews.
What these training plans have in common is a long run once per week followed by a day of rest, and about 6 total days of training with different plans for speed training and easy recovery runs.
As an inexperienced runner, the most important thing for me is to prevent injury and speed recovery as much as possible in order to be able to train as much as these plans suggest. I will also need to adapt these plans to fit with my triathlon training schedule. Expect an update Tuesday when I decide on what to train.
Nutrition: In order to speed recovery I have been researching nutrition for recovery, focusing mainly on Nutrition For Sports and Exercise by Marie Dunford and J. Andrew Doyle published in 2008. Since an endurance athlete's main energy source is carbohydrates, I have been focusing on the section that gives carbohydrate recommendations and have come up with these guidelines for myself:
Pre-workout Carbohydrates
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75g one hour before - Dunford and Doyle recommend 1g carbs per kilogram body weight one
hour before exercise (I weigh approximately 75 kg - convert from pounds to kilograms
here: http://www.healthyweightforum.org/eng/converter.asp). Pre-exercise carbohydrates
depend on the time before exercise however. The body can tolerate 2g carbs per kg 2 hours
before the workout (150g for me) and 3-4.5 g per kg (225-340g for me) 3-4 hours prior.
During Workout
-----------------------
30-60g of carbohydrates per hour of exercise. The book says this number is based on the
"maximum rate of glucose absorption for the gastrointestinal tract, which is estimated to be
1g/min or 60g/hour." Yesterday during my half distance training session I opted for
Vitamin Water Endurance and a Oatmeal Raisin Walnut Clif Bar. I would not recommend
the Clif Bar for long running - I ate less than half of it, but with two miles to go I took the
smallest bite and developed an intense cramp the minute it touched my tongue.
Vitamin Water = 32.2g carbohydrates per bottle, Clif Bar = 43g in the whole bar, probably
20ish grams in the half I ate - getting me to a total of about 55 grams total, leaving me
about 5 grams underneath the minimum recommendation. Next time I will get the bigger
bottle of vitamin water, I am also planning to invest in a sports drink/electrolyte
replacement powder.
Post-Workout
-----------------------
First hour after exercise - 120g carbohydrates
Next three hours - 1 - 1.5g carbs per kg each hour - 56.25 - 112.5g per hour for me.
They also recommend low glycemic index carbohydrates before the workout and high afterwords. Get info about the glycemic index here: http://www.glycemicindex.com/
Ultra endurance sports are the coolest thing in the world to me right now. Expect an update soon about the book I'm reading right now called Lance: The Making of the World's Greatest Champion by John Wilcockson.
Favorite endurance all-stars right now:
1. Reinhold Messner - first to climb Mt. Everest without oxygen
2. Dean Karnazes - ran 50 marathons in 50 states in 50 days - www.ultramarathonman.com
That's enough for now. Goodnight!
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