Half Marathon Training

So, I finally got around to really checking out Austin Fit’s (add link) website yesterday.  I read about how they structure their weekly workouts.  I’m a little disappointed that it appears their half marathon training long runs are only 6-8 miles.  Those are what I would consider “median” runs, not long runs, even though 8 is currently the longest I’ve run and is what I consider a long run right now.  But, for half marathon training, I was thinking more along the lines of 8-10, or even 11 miles for the long runs.  Also, and this really gets me, the group I would run with, the 10:00-10:59 group, states that it does a walk/run program.  I don’t want to walk/run.  I want to just straight up run.  I don’t need or want walk breaks.  So, when I sign up, I’ll have to ask if I join that group, will I be able to just continue running when everyone else stops to walk…or if it’s actually essential to the training that I take the walk breaks.  But, really, I’d rather just run straight through.  Heck, I’m not going to stop and walk during a half marathon, so why would I do it during training?

But they listed runs that people taking the specific classes (ie-summer, fall, etc.) are training to run.  The summer class, the one I plan to register for, starts in mid-May.  The most popular race that people in the summer class are shooting to run is the San Antonio installment of the Rock’n’Roll half marathon in November.  So, now I have a goal.  I want to run that Rock’n’Roll half.  I got invited to go with some girl friends to run the Las Vegas one, but I won’t have the money to pay for the trip this year.  Next year’s a different story, though.

I’ve still got my sights on the Livestrong Austin Marathon, half marathon distance for February of 2014.  But, like the Austin Fit guy at the expo (where I picked up my Capital 10K race packet) said, if I can do one sooner, why shouldn’t I want to?  Right!  I totally agree with that.  And I love exceeding my goals and accomplishing them ahead of schedule.