Honest answers sought about my planned first race (Read 661 times)

Ok, lessee......The race is 20 Jan, it's currently 21 Nov, that gives you just about 2 months. Your current long run is around 4.5 miles (sorry, I'm bad at converting, I just know 5k = 3.1 miles and go from there), and you want to race a distance of 12 k, which would be right around 7 or 8 miles.... You could totally do it. If you up your long runs by about a mile (or whatever equivalent distance) a week, stepping it back some every third or fourth week, you'd still be able to do it. And injury free. Don't do any speed work, and I would avoid hill-specific workouts. I would say incorporate hills into your regular runs, but don't do a focused day of hills (does that make sense?).

Thanks lads! Thanks for the encouragement! Sir Jake, I think not baby puppy. I'll bask in the insanity of those that 'can' whilst wallowing in the bed of those that 'quiver at the thought'. A hills a hill - but some hills are mountains. You, me and Mohammed know all about that one. I am so annoyed that the Waiheke website is down. I am desperate to see the route again. I have never been to Waiheke but the lady I spoke to the other day said that some of the hills she was too scared to drive up. I'll ride on the fact that a hills a hill but that woman's not me - although frankly I wouldn't drive up a steep hill either as I have never learnt to drive so it would be pretty stupid. Claire xxx

You can totally do it!! Jake's advice sounds great. I'd suggest the training program at runnersworld.com. I never really ran before until a few weeks ago, and by following the training plan pretty closely I'm doing a 5-mile race tomorrow. Follow the experienced runners advice about hills and all, but I just thought I'd weigh in on your ability to train for it. As you get into higher mileage, I'd urge you to plan for rest days and stick to them. As I've become a little addicted lately, I've wanted that "challenge" you describe and didn't rest a couple of times after longer runs, which resulted in terrible runs that were just discouraging. Good luck Claire!

I'd not answered this one before because I couldn't think of how to say what I wanted to say. Figured it out this morning... You do have enough time between now and Jan 20 to train for your race, and if that's what you want to do, then go for it! Keep in mind, however, that the quality of your race experience will be determined by what you do in between now and then. You "win" a race through how you prepare for it. So you need to address the race. Two things you'll want to focus on: 1) You know the distance. It's more than you're doing now. Don't panic, but do continue increasing your milage. You've got a 7 km long run right now, and your race is 12 km... so you'll probably want to bump up the length of your long run about a km/wk until you get to the 12 km mark. Knowing that you can run that distance because you've done it before is a *great* confidence booster. It seems really long now, but if you've run a long run of 12K 3-4 times beforehand, it won't seem so scary on race day. While you're bumping up your weekly long run, don't neglect the rest of your weekly milage. If you keep increasing your overall weekly milage about 10%/wk until you're in the 36 km/wk range, that should be enough to get you through it. Of course, you can always do more, but I wouldn't suggest less. 2) You know it has hills, even though you don't know how bad they are. Bummer! That adds to the anxiety level. For sure, find out as soon as you can. But until then, why not pick out the nastiest, ugliest hill route around that you can find and turn that into a "normal" run for you? Of course, your speed will drop down some at first. Don't fret it. Just get used to running on the hills. Hills are your friend - they make you stronger. Every time you train on those nasty, ugly hills you are getting stronger. )And a lot of your competition won't be ready for hills. You will be. ) If the race hills are less, you'll be very well prepared. If they're more, well, there's not much more you could have done anyway... From where I am, it looks totally doable, but it'll take work. The end result is totally up to you and the efforts and training you put in, consistantly, between now and then. Good luck!

Hey, if you found a set of hills that are "pretty challenging" right now, and it makes you proud to have completed your run, then that's a good place to start. You don't have to take on "nasty & ugly" right away... just make sure you do well enough before race day so that you've got a chance to get used to them. If/when your current hills cease to challenge you, then move on up! On a side note... finishing "still running" is a great goal, but if you get to the race and the hills are monstrous dragons compared with anything you've done before, you very well may want to consider walking up the hills from the start... that'll leave you running down them and on the flat parts... which will be faster than trying to run the uphills starting out and getting so wiped out that you're barely trudging in by the end. :: shrug:: Just a thought. Depends on how bad they are compared to what you manage to train with. Wishing you luck on your race!!!