Well, I did commit to following Galloway's "Time Goal for Half Marathon" training program. I started 3 weeks ago so that the last week of training aligns with the Geist Half Marathon. My long runs so far have been 5, 6 and 7.5 miles--the 7.5 run was last Friday, and I realized halfway through, that it was the longest run I had done since my marathon in November! Wow! Really, unless you're training for a race, I don't see a need to run more than 5-6 miles at a time. An hour run is certainly sufficient for health and fitness benefits.
Meanwhile, most of the runners around me have now started training for the Mini. Those following the NIFS program (Absolute Beginner's Guide to Half-Marathon Training, written by my colleague Heather (Hedrick) Fink) have gradually built up to 5 miles. What happened to the ease-you-in 2 and 3 mile runs in my training program?!
I will say that all the post-holiday blah-ness I was experiencing has been burned away. I'm feeling slimmer and more energized than I felt in January. Running does that. There is no other equal to those who have caught the runner's bug! The only disappointing thing so far is that because of sleety, windy weather and out of town trips on weekends (when it was actually nice outside), I've been forced to do 2 out of the 3 long runs on treadmills---which for me, is anything but speedy. I run a whole minute per mile slower on a treadmill than I do outside. I get discouraged during winter when it seems that I can't run under 10 mins/mile, but then when I step foot outside again, I'm magically back to 9 mins/mile right away. Yet another reason to wish us out of this winter (as mild as it may be) into springtime!
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