bunnyfoo
<font color=red>It's Monday and my mind was somewh
- Joined
- Jun 2, 2002
I talked to a friend who runs half marathons and she said she aims to be running 6 miles before a half and then just kicks it in for the half. Does it really get easier when you are up to running 6 miles????? Seems to me like going from 6 to 13.1 is a HUGE jump even if just for one day. I have a 4.2 mile loop from my house I've been walking for years and walk it in about an hour so my goal is to be able to run it once, stop at my house for a quick water break and run it again. If I can do this before the half, do you think I'll be able to kick it in for that one day and do it?
I would think that if you haven't run the 1/2 distance before, you'd at least want to make sure that your longest run was somewhere in the 8-10 mile range and then start tapering two weeks or so before. I think it just depends on what kind of shape you're in and whether your body will be prepared to make such a big jump in mileage. I also think if you're going for a specific time goal (vs. just finishing the race), you'll want to have a training plan.
My longest run for the first half marathon I ever did was 10K. It just happened because of a knee injury and scheduling conflicts. It wasn't very pretty. But since then, I've done a half where my longest run was 8 miles and it worked out okay.