My sister and I told each other we'd run in the Fargo Marathon this year, doing the 1/2 Marathon. Well, that crashed & burned - it was in May.

Last May I started running on the treadmill with my PT at the gym. She had me doing intervals - 2min walk, 1 min jog. I stuck with this until Sept-Oct. gradually building up to 3-4min jog - 1 min walk at about 4.5-5mph jog speed (1-1.5 incline on the treadmill).
Not fast - like someone called it - slogging. I'm not fast, even when I was fit in high school I wasn't fast - typical mile in 10-12 min back then. 7 min. if I had good motivational runners with me LOL.

I went from not being able to run across the yard - to running 1-2 miles with my dogs on an almost nightly basis. *jog until I couldn't, walk a few minutes, jog again. Some nights I'd hop on the bike afterwards and do another 2 miles.

I fell off the wagon Oct. - now. I started to jog again - I can go 1 mile with out stopping, turn and head home- walking just a few times for a tiny bit. I'd say I picked up where I left off -

Why the post? I'm here to get advice from Kim on how to train for the 1/2 Marathon next year --- I have a friend who also wants to start training as well. THIS TIME I WILL DO IT !!!! My guy even bought me new runners ! Fargo Marathon 2008 here I come !
(I don't want to win - I just want to finish )

So if any of you want to join along in the training - let's get some good beginners advice from Kim and share our stories, distances and sucess !

And we'll lose weight doing it !

Sounds like you are off to a good start! I try to encourage my participants to do a run/walk rather then a full on run. You end up walking at certain points anyways i.e waterstops so why kill yourself getting there. A 4/1 (4 run/1walk) split is a very doable ratio. Since you have so much time I'd say to work towards being able to do that and then we will work on increasing your mileage. Slow and steady wins the race! One of things I always tell my people is that my goal is not to make you fast, my goal is to get you across the finish line safely!

Kim

So do you have any kind of schedule you give to people?
I was on Hal Higdon's website www.halhigdon.com
and he has a couple of free schedules called a 30/30 and 30/60 for beginners.

How gradual do you add distance - over weeks or months or days?

With a 1/2 marathon, 4/1 - you'd end up running about 11 miles walking 2?

Awesome thread! I just signed up to do my first 5k in September and stated the Couch to 5k plan today. I too walk/jog (Funny! I call it Wogging. But I like your Slogging too.) It's been tough but I'm determined.

What's the scoop on the Couch to 5k plan - can you share the details for us?

Awesome ! We can be Wogger Sloggers !

Here is a link to the Coach to 5K. It's a great place to start!

http://www.coolrunning.com/engine/2/2_3/181.shtml

I do have schedules, I'm in the process of finishing one up for this season. I'll send it to you when I'm done.

Kim

I have looked at The Couch to 5K before. It looks like a really good way to start. I want to participate in our local Queen City Road Race next year so I think I am going to start working on this. I printed it off. I have just started exercising again on the treadmill, elliptical and doing crunches so I will probably wait till I have a good pace down on this before I add this other. I think I might set a goal of starting in Sept/Oct when it is a bit cooler outside.

Kim,
How are the schedules going? :-) Just checking.

Almost done, hopefully tomorrow!

KimS