Surf City Half Marathon Training Plan!

When my cousin told me on Thanksgiving hat she was going to participate in the Surf City Half Marathon on Feb 7, 2010, I was thrilled for her!  This is a race that I've wanted to run, but wasn't planning on a race of that caliber until mid 2010 or even 2011!  So when she said I should do it with her I hesitated and said I wanted to get some more 5Ks and 10Ks under my belt before going the distance.

I started thinking about the possibility of running it and whether or not I would have enough time to train, and after talking to my brother I signed up!  Once I hit the "SUBMIT" button on the website I felt giddy like a kid in a candy store!  Motivation took over and I immediately began looking up training plans!

I first went to Runner's World and they had some great plans.  I found a beginner training plan that I liked from RW, and I also stumbled across the Hal Higdon novice training plan.  I ended up putting together a 10-week plan incorporating both plans that would fit my schedule and work the best for me.  Like I said, I'm a beginner.  Before I began my journey to 13.1 miles, the farthest I've run is 3 miles.  How was I going to go from 3 to 13.1 miles?!  I pulled together my training schedule and gave it to my running mentor to review.  He made some minor tweaks to it, and also suggested I include a 10K race around week 6 or 7, so that's what I did!  I'm really happy with my final training plan!  My long runs are on Sundays starting with 4 miles and gradually increasing to 10 miles two weeks prior to the race.  From there I will taper until race day.

Here's what my final training plan looks like!

I'm not running Surf City for time or pace.  I'm running it to run it.  I'm running it to finish 13.1 miles, which will be my longest distance completed!  If I get tired and need to slow down or walk, I'm totally OK with that.  I will try not to but hey, I am going to listen to my body.  Seven weeks until race day and I can't wait!!