SC speed has never really been my thing, MK can give you tons of advice on this. In general I don't like running at a pace more than my body naturally wants to do that day, it's just not fun for me. I like pushing myself on distance. Sometimes yeah I like to go balls to the wall on the treadmill during a 3 miler and see how fast I can go, but mostly I hang out at 10:30 and love it. It's taken me about a year to get there, I was at 12:00 for a long time in fact I was around that while training for my first half, so no I don't think it's necessary to increase your speed to train for a half. You can google your hearts content to find a good half program that will fit your lifestyle. Most of them start with a long run of 4 - 8 miles and increase gradually. Any of them will do. I think I did the one on marathonrookie.com, although Hal Higdon's are good too. I didn't like Hals so much because I think it peaked at 10 miles and that wasn't high enough for my comfort. Just know you'll have some easy long runs and some hard ones, but in the end it's a very rewarding experience.

ETA: A veteran marthoner told me other day that I need to get my pace up to a 9 min. mile for my first Full...I was/am kinda irritated by that. Stupidly I didn't ask why...but I'm surely not going to let my pace discourage me.

I run a 12:00 minute mile....for 5.4 miles.:) I only run faster when someone is chasing me with a cookie!:dizzy:

When I ran marathons I had absolutely no concern about pace. I just wanted to finish. Unless you have a finish time goal, don't worry about it! I finished my 1st in about 4:30. I never ran further than 13 in training either. And each marathon after, I trained less and ran slower. The last one I ran was an hour slower, and I didn't train much at all. No half that time!

K....totally feeling lazy this evening. Totally blew off running this afternoon as planned (the heat just got to me so I went swimming instead:p)

That said...no excuses...on my way down to the dungeon for my 5 mile run. Send someone for me if I don't come back in about an hour...they will find me downstairs slumped over a treadmill!:p

Back!!!:D Didn't make 5 miles though...the heat is incredible, must be 90 degrees outside tonight. The a/c just aint kickin it enough for me. Did an exhausting 3.2 miles though.:)

Kickin back with a nice ice creammmmmy protein fruit smoothie with lots and lots of ICE!:D Gonna go for an hour long late night swim!:carrot:

WTF is that about? the runner thinks you should increase your running pace to a 9 minute mile, for a marathon??? With the speds you post, i can see that being very aceivable for a 10K, but not at this point for a marathon.. However, a 9 min/mi will give you a ub 4 hour marathon.... but this is your first and you are only concerned with COMPLETING IT.
You are going to run it at the pace that you can comfortably (HAHA) finish 26.2 miles. For you, i imagine that will be your base pace (of 10:30's????) make sure to practice this pace on your long runs, and as they increase in length..... if you were training in a more advanced fashion, the strategy would be different...... FOr you, i think your long runs can be done at your base pace (instead of slower, like is alot of times recommended... this is generally so people can recover faster) i think your confidence/mental health will be able to recover better if you do the long runs at the pace you are comfy with

Do you run every day of the week, or take small breaks?

I took a two day break and did a dvd both days. Earlier this evening I took a short walk. I plan to walk/run tomorrow. :)

Had a really craptastic 3 1/2 ish mile run yesterday, had to gasp and walk like 8 times. I walked about 3 1/2 miles at lunch so that might have contributed to the sore feeling, but ugh. The whole way I felt like I was dying. It's been super humid recently and I feel like I have to try twice as hard just to breathe.

I hear ya, krampus. The humidity here is pretty bad too.

On another note, I believe I may have figured out why my ankles hurt so bad when I speed-walk. I think it's because I'm still wearing my old shoes, and I've lost an inch or so on my feet (weird, I know) and my feet slide inside my shoes with every step I take. I'm going to switch to my size 8s this time and see if it makes a difference.

Left knee is feeling GREAT this morning. Gonna run 5 miles today...still too hot to run outdoors though, so inside treadmill here I gooo!!!

Serval - I personally don't run everyday (although some do). I used to when I first started, but as my running intensity grew, it just became "bad news" for my knees. Every other day (3-4 days/week) yields excellent results and I don't run the most common risk of failure = BURNOUT!:D I don't do anything on my days off (except swim, which I don't consider exercise cuz I don't sweat). So your doing more than I with the DVDS which is great cuz I'm lazy!:dizzy:

It's sooooooooooo hot in my neck of the woods (south). Times like this that I really appreciate my pool. Miss the beach though...been dreaming of going. Just me, a chair, some cold water and a boogie board!:p

45 mins/6 km+ this morning with my boyfriend. He had just gotten off an international flight at midnight 8 hours earlier, but lovingly indulged my request for an AM run. swoon :)

krampus sorry to hear about your latest runs... urg those are so annoying. I still don't know why some days running is so much harder than others.

Serval Get new shoes!!! :P Especially since you are incorporating running into your walking. It's so important to have support if you're putting impact on your joints.

To answer your question about daily versus taking days off, I only allow myself a run every other day. I don't think it's extremely important to take days off if you're just walking, but if you're walking with running intervals I'd imagine your joints will thank you if you cross-train, lift, or do any other sort of activity that isn't so stressful on the joints on your non-running days. Plus cross-training is a good idea in general as opposed to just sticking to one activity.

joyful Well done, getting yourself to the gym! Hope the smoothie & swim combo was lovely.

ncuneo and mkroyer or other experienced runners, I'm planning on doing a 10K in August. I'm at 45 minutes and plan to add 1 km to my 6 km runs each week, ideally running 10K each clip by a month from now. Is that a good point to start speed training? My runs are identical in distance and time right now and I'm wondering when a good point to start doing longer runs, recovery runs, and speed work is. Advice?

I just finished a walk/run. My new shoes worked pretty well. I had minimal pain in my ankles. :) My heart-rate didn't get as high, because it was mild this morning as opposed to my usual afternoon/evening walk/runs when it's humid. Oh, on my first sprint, I didn't notice that I actually went to 30 seconds instead of 20. I didn't push that on the others, though, but I just thought I would share. I also plan to walk in town today since I'm going grocery shopping.

Indie - give me a moment to pick myself up off the floor - experienced runner! Me? It felt weird to be called that - thanks! I'm not exactly sure if you're asking how to train for a 10k and increase distance or how to improve your speed - or both? Could you clarify that a little?

Serval - I know there are a lot of avid runners out there that run daily, personally it's not for me. I prefer to mix it up with strength training and yoga so I run 4xs a week. When I start training for my marathon later this year I will increase that, but that's training. I'm already starting to feel it in my knees a bit and I want a long runner career.

Joyful! I saw your goal post. First of all - congrats!!!! Second - you look AMAZING! I am SO jealous of that tummy! Way to go! That is so awesome.

Krampus - I am right there with you on the craptastic run today! I got worked by a substitute yoga instructor last night who thought it would be awesome to do some power yoga! It was awesome, I loved it, but holy crap I'm feeling things in places today I didn't know I could.

It's a cut back week so I have 8 miles slotted for Sunday. I'm glad, I'm beat!

Hello everyone! I will be back to my running routine I got new running sneakers yesterday and think it will be alll the difference. I miss my jogs:(

The only way you are really going to progress is if you change things u p a bit--- considering you have an athletic goal, it doesnt make sense to run the exact same distance, at the exact same speed, every run, or you will ONLY be able to run that distance at that speed. 1km a week increase is only .6 mi increase per week, which is perfectly reasonable, so within a month you will be at the 10K distnace... you COULD increase the distance faster than that, if you wanted. If you have a goal of getting faster, there is no reason you cant start doing speed work now. because of the distance of a 10K (kinda long) i would focus on doing 1 km or 1/2 Km repeats at a slightly faster tempo than you run now.... it should be out of your comfort zone, but you should be able to finish them. Allow yourself a 1:1 ratio of recovery time, for the time being. So 1 km fast, and 1 km recovery pace. Ideally you want to do these at your lactic acid threshold to reap the most benefit..... if you have a HR monitor this can be determined online easily... im at the point where i dont need one... i can tell exactly when i am running at threshold.... and sometimes threshold is higher or lower pace, depending on the day. I think 1 speed workout a week will be more than sufficient.. and now that im thinking about it, you might want to start with 800 meter repeats (1/2 km) with 800 m recovery. you can start doing these now :) If you dont want to go as fast as threshold, you could always just shoot for maybe 30 sec/mi faster on the repeats. Tempo runs are great also, but i dont know how fast you are capable of running/sustaining 2+ miles. Another idea is to do your usual distance, at your usual speed, but the last 1 or 2 miles increase the pace.
These are NOT "HIIT" intervals...... work on incresing your leg turnover rate during these.... break past your comfort zone..... a great idea following a speed workout is to do an easy recovery the NEXT DAY... not wait an extra day......... Also, since you are going to be incresing your distance a km per week, only do it on 1 run (your long run) + 1 speed workout, plus 1 recovery +1 at your current normal pace distance. There is no reason that once you hit the 10K mark, you cant keep increasing the distance every week, or every other week...... it will make running a 10K a breeze if you can really run up to 8 miles, for instance

How long have you been running?