Running a Half Marathon in Training

With my Wings for Life World Run happening on May 3rd it was time to up the training.

I’ve been following the MyAsics training plan since the start of the year.  I had to modify the plan midway through because my initial plan was for Roller Coaster Run.

The wings for life world run is an event like no other.  There is no finish line.  You’re race ends when the chaser car catches you.
So how far will I run?  Well, wings for life have a calculator where you can input some details, and it will give you an idea of how far you can run until the chaser car passes you.

If I run for 2 hours.  I can cover 23km at a 5:13 pace.

If I run for 2 hours and 7 minutes. I can cover 25km at 5:05 pace.

My initial goal was to cover 25km.  That would be totally awesome.

But the thing with goals is that sometimes you have to have a fallback goal.  So if I can’t crack 25km, then my aim is 23km.

Getting back to the My Asics training plan.

The plan doesn’t allow you to input your desired “distance goal”.  It only allows you to input a ‘set distance goal’.  So unless your goal is 5km, 10km, 21.1km or 42.2km, your plan has to get modified.

So I set my goal for 21.1km (half marathon). For a sub 1h45m time frame.  That has me running at approximately 5:00 pace.

I’ve never done a training plan without missing some runs.  This plan was no exception. But such is life.

On 16th April I embarked on my longest run to date.  In my plan, it stated “18km at 5:05 pace”.  However, I knew if I want to get to 25km, then I would need to run at least 22-23km at a 5:15ish pace.

With my hydration pack, fuel, and my music, I had everything I need to rock this run.

Everything was going great, then at the 16km, I had to stop at the side of the road to let a car go past. Stopping and waiting for the car undid me.  I unravelled.  I ended up stopping every 2km after that.  I totally lost my momentum.

I plodded on and imagined my world-run wingman (Simon), yelling at me “the catcher car is coming” towards the end, so I could give it all had.  Which wasn’t much, but I crossed my finish line in a time of 2h01m46s, covering a total of 22.16km!

So bring on the world run!