cherry what kind of intervals are you doing?

Warm up 5 minutes and then spend 20 minutes sprinting 1 minute jogging 1 minute, 5 minute cool down.

One of my goals for this year is to begin running. It scares/confuses me. I don't know how to run. Sounds ridiculous, right? I don't know how to breath properly, what pace to maintain etc. I have tried in the past & normally just end up feeling stupid & power walk it back to the car in a frustrated/bad mood.
Just recently I heard of a 2/3 method where you run for 2 minutes then power walk for 3. You continue this method for the entire distance. When you feel confortable with it, you push yourself and up the running time & cut the walking time. I have to admit, this sounds a little less scary. Any advice people want to throw out there would be greatly appreciated.

Cherry - mix it up sometimes if you are hating it. Go for 2min/2min sometime, etc. Or hill repeaters. It is good practice because you have to learn to adjust your pace to just a bit slower to be able to hang on for 2 min. Plus if you have been doing 1/1 you get to tell yourself you only have to do half the reps on 2/2


53:03 on my 10K today. Not bad considering its the first race I've RACED in 18 months and I am still a good 20-25lbs above racing weight. Very pleased. I hope to break 50 again in March

You can even do 30 seconds run 1.5 min walk and increase from there. That's how I started. And go at your own pace.

I have been running for quite awhile and have had the goal of a half marathon for quite awhile. The farthest I've gone is 16k, but that really beats me up. Stretching and an extra gel helped.

I got busy at work last fall and got behind on my running, so I'm back to 5k and working up again.

Cherry - yes I'd continue to do intervals, mostly because you're "mixing" up your type of activity. We you do nothing by one activity your body adapts and becomes more efficent, burning less cals.

LW - it sounds like you've got the right idea. I just started running for as long as it was comfortable and then I just natually started wanting to push myself.

Ennay - Congrats! That is a stellar time for just coming back. WOW! I'm super impressed! Especially since I've never run a 10k anything close to that, of course believe it or not, I actually never done a 10k race. My first race was a half marathon. My "plan" is to do a few 5s and 10s as part of my second marathon training in the Fall.

I can't believe I've totally already convinced myself I'm going to want to run a second marathon. First of all, I haven't even run my first, second I said I only wanted to run one! But I'm enjoying this process so much I can't imagine not doing it again and perfecting it.

So tomorrow is the big 16 miler. Trying to eat better this time around. Yesterday was awesome! Which for me is amazing, Friday's and Saturday's it usually really hard to stay on track for me. So far today is going extremely well also. I have me pre and post fuel plan in place, gonna do a little stretching later for my hips and then get a good nights sleep. I'm excited, I mapped out a great course and I'm ready!

Have a great weekend everyone!

ready to shed this old me...cmon it's time to take my running to the next level!

Tomorrow will be my first run then. Eeeek! Wish me luck! :)

Ncuneo- I also have a sub-2 hour Half goal for this year (May 6) and I'm also going to run my first marathon (Chicago in October).
I'm super excited!

Good luck!!

RFC - that's is awesome, good luck to you as well. I'm really excited about the sub 2 goal. My attempt will be on June 3rd in San Diego. It's a super flat course and I registered last week. I ran a 2:06 a few weeks ago on my own, so I'm hoping I don't have too far to go. That was one of the greatest runs of my life.

Also good luck to you LW & AKA.

So it's 5:30 am and I'm just waiting for my pre-run snack to digest while my family sleeps away, lucky ducks:) The wind has picked up and I'm hoping if I wait another hour or so that will die down...I HATE running in the wind. We get some pretty crazy gusts around here.

I'm not really too nervous. I'm just focusing on the fact that I've already completed 14 and in my last training cycle I did a 15, so this is not something outside of my familiar zone. I'm also trying to stay in the present of my training and not look too far. The thought of the 18 miler coming up in two weeks and the 2 20 milers coming up after that really freaks me out. Right now, all that I need to focus on is the 16 miler today that is only 2 more miles than last weeks run...the rest will come.

Food wise, I did ok yesterday...the first 2/3s of the day were really good, but the end got a little rough. Fortunately, I didn't go too nuts with the sugar, fat or salt so it should have little effect on my run. If anything it will probably help. But that's really not the point...I really need to get a handle on my emotional eating...but that's a entirely different thread...so wish me luck today!

I'll check back later if I don't fall asleep :)

I did want to pass along one super important race tip I picked up on yesterday. When pinning your bib to your shirt, dont accidentally pin your shirt to your shorts. :rofl:

Intelligent blondes all over the world are thanking you at this very hour!!
:rofl:

Ran with a friend yesterday for the first time we did a run 3 walk 1min {I think} and we ran 6.5 miles it was the longest I have run it seemed pretty easy as I usually just run the whole time but usually just go 3.5.And the longest before this was 5 miles but that was with no walking. I know I need to switch it up can not seem to get my speed upwith the straight running.

Seriously, the sad part was the number of millithoughts that went through my head before I figured it out. "Did my hips get bigger in the last 15 minutes?" Partly because I had a double knot in my shorts string that I havent been able to undo in weeks so it is tough to get them off anyway.

I had such a wonderful run yesterday. I had a fight w/ DH beforehand - maybe that fueled me? Anyway I did a .8 mi walk warmup and then jogged 5.6 miles, the longest I've ever done continuously. It was getting really dark and my road has no streetlights, or I would have gone longer. Also the weather is INCREDIBLE here in New York - it was over 60 degrees yesterday. I ran in shorts and a long sleeve shirt.

I'm getting ready for a half marathon in May, so I'm trying to add .5-1 mile to my long run each week. I'll have to do the rest of my runs on the treadmill this week as I have to go to the office everyday and it's too dark in the morning and at night when I get home.

deva, that's fantastic!

ennay, hilarious!

You guys with the sub 2 hour goals are amazing! I will be happy just to finish before they take the finish line down :-) After this I'll see if I want to attempt the full marathon the following year..I'm starting to get the feeling that I'll want to be able to say at least once in my life that I did it.