Motivated by my sister training for a full marathon, I signed up for a 12K race that she had already signed up for in May. At the time I did not think twice about the length. After all, it did not seem anything compared to the marathon and half marathon lengths that she has been running/training for. Sometime within the first week though I started thinking about how the longest I have ran before was the 5Ks of my cross country days over ten years ago. I am excited for the new challenge, as well as getting back into running, but I am also a little more insecure with knowing exactly how to prepare.
My sister recommended Hal Higdon's training plans. Though he did not have one for a 12K (at least that I could find), I found his 10K novice 8-week and 15K novice 10-week training plans. I also found one on Active Route specifically for the Bloomsday 12K that I will be doing. I like the extra detail of Higdon's plans, and on one site I saw that a 10K training plan will also work for a 12K. I was thinking of trying to blend his 10K and 15K plans in order to find a happy medium for my training.
I backtracked 8 weeks from my race day on my calendar and am all set to begin on March 7th, a day after turning 30. Not a bad way to start a new decade of my life. Between now and then I will be spending most of my time exercising inside the gym. I enjoy Zumba, as well as a class that has a blend of cardio and strength training with a group of women. Then I will also do one session a week with my personal trainer. I will take advantage of opportunities when the roads seem safe to run outside, but when they are not, I will embrace the treadmill with my iPod. Overall, I will be doing more cross-training than running, but my main goal right now is to exercise consistently. It doesn't seem like a bad idea to build up strength in these chilly, icy winter months.
By March, I look forward to shifting the balance to having more outdoor runs and less time inside the gym on the treadmill. I also can't wait to run with my sister at Bloomsday.
Just don't get too speedy, I want to keep up with you still! :) If you just do his 15k plan you'll be overtrained and it'll feel like a breeze! (and it's really Sara posting, not sherri) :)
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