So, I mentioned in my post last week that my next big adventure is to start training for a 25k. I have two in mind; one a trail race called The Black Warrior 25k and the other is the Fifth Third River Bank Run back in my hometown of Grand Rapids.
This will be my longest race to date, as a 25k is 15.5 miles, just a smidge longer than a half marathon. It's part of my short term planning in order to reach my goal of running a 50k. As much as I wanted to run a 50k this year, I just didn't put in the miles this summer for that to be a reasonable goal in the next few months. I spent so much of the first part of the year trying to recover from my hamstring injury and then playing it safe because of that that I just didn't do the work I needed to reach that goal.
But that's the great thing about goals. Sometimes it's necessary to take a step back and reevaluate them. You don't necessarily have to give up on them, just change your time table.
This will be my longest race to date, as a 25k is 15.5 miles, just a smidge longer than a half marathon. It's part of my short term planning in order to reach my goal of running a 50k. As much as I wanted to run a 50k this year, I just didn't put in the miles this summer for that to be a reasonable goal in the next few months. I spent so much of the first part of the year trying to recover from my hamstring injury and then playing it safe because of that that I just didn't do the work I needed to reach that goal.
But that's the great thing about goals. Sometimes it's necessary to take a step back and reevaluate them. You don't necessarily have to give up on them, just change your time table.
After last year, I learned a few things though.
So, for these reasons, I decided that I would start following an actual running plan. A training guide as a basis for my running plans. Something to focus my training as well as to hold me accountable and motivate me.
But dude... I cannot find a training plan I like. I tried looking at the training plan and compared it to other ones and they all come up, well... LACKING.
Why is it that training plans never actually go up to the actual mileage of the event???
I know, I know... If you can run 12 or 13 miles, then you can obviously also run 15.5 miles. But I'm a bit of a control freak sometimes. And I like to go in to a situation and feel completely prepared. Which for me means that I want to KNOW, without a doubt, that I can run a specific distance before I try and run that distance in a race.
I also realize that I'm starting early. The 25k race isn't for several months and I could easily just tag on an extra couple weeks and follow the same pattern as the rest of the plan and up the long run mileage for those extra weeks.
Anyways! I'm going to continue my search for the perfect training guide. Which at this point seems still slightly more likely than finding a hot date for Friday night! (Which is good, because I'm gonna have to run Saturday, so who has time for dates?)
For today though, back in the saddle with a 3.7 mile run at Tin Roof 2. Met a new running buddy tonight! I feel pretty good about the start of this journey... Here's hoping for big and exciting things!
#runlove, y'all!
- Running in the winter in Tennessee is much easier than running in the winter in Michigan.
- I still slacked on my running, despite not having to put up with blizzards.
- I need some more structure in my running.
So, for these reasons, I decided that I would start following an actual running plan. A training guide as a basis for my running plans. Something to focus my training as well as to hold me accountable and motivate me.
But dude... I cannot find a training plan I like. I tried looking at the training plan and compared it to other ones and they all come up, well... LACKING.
Why is it that training plans never actually go up to the actual mileage of the event???
I know, I know... If you can run 12 or 13 miles, then you can obviously also run 15.5 miles. But I'm a bit of a control freak sometimes. And I like to go in to a situation and feel completely prepared. Which for me means that I want to KNOW, without a doubt, that I can run a specific distance before I try and run that distance in a race.
I also realize that I'm starting early. The 25k race isn't for several months and I could easily just tag on an extra couple weeks and follow the same pattern as the rest of the plan and up the long run mileage for those extra weeks.
Anyways! I'm going to continue my search for the perfect training guide. Which at this point seems still slightly more likely than finding a hot date for Friday night! (Which is good, because I'm gonna have to run Saturday, so who has time for dates?)
For today though, back in the saddle with a 3.7 mile run at Tin Roof 2. Met a new running buddy tonight! I feel pretty good about the start of this journey... Here's hoping for big and exciting things!
#runlove, y'all!