My First Half Marathon
I have always been a physically active person. Even at my worst, I was always moving around doing something. Even all my previous jobs have been physical. But, I don’t have any experience in running in an organized marathon. I have always thought about it but never pulled the trigger on anything. I guess the closest thing I have done that has been an organized race of some sort was the tough mudder [1] . I ended up training for 6 months with a personal trainer for that and had a lot of fun doing it. Other than that, I have not had a specific event or anything that I was training for. All my exercise has been geared towards just being healthy and not letting myself get out of shape.
I started watching different things on YouTube about people doing triathlons, ultra-marathons, marathons, and event cross-fit stuff
[2]
[3]
. I have always wanted to do some kind of marathon but watching other people train for them just sparked my interest even more.
Having zero experience, I was unsure of where to begin. I figured to just toss on my shoes and start running, and I will eventually get better. I also thought that the idea was to run as hard as I could for the distance I was running. Turns out that is not the most effective way to go about it. So far, what I found was there are 4 basic building blocks of marathon training.
- Base mileage . Build your weekly mileage over time, running three-to-five times per week.
- The long run. Do a long run every 7–10 days so your body can adjust gradually to long distances.
- Speed work. Practice intervals and tempo runs to increase your cardio capacity.
I am still trying to develop the right kind of program for myself. Right now, I run Tuesday, Thursday, and Sunday(longer run). Weight train Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, with Saturday for a rest day.
I was doing a muscle split lifting routine but moved to a full-body workout program for this half marathon. I was told by a personal trainer that this would help my whole body work together for race day. Also, for my long run, part of it is up a very slopped mountainside. Not sure if this will help or hinder me but again, I am still learning and trying new things.
The event I signed up for is 2022 Ronald McDonald House BC & Yukon Boundary Bay Race on November.6, 2022 in Delta, B.C. I am also raising money for the Ronald McDonald House charity that you can donate to at this link if you want to support this charity.
After my first half marathon, I will start training for a full marathon. I will want to have one chosen a while in advance and have all the travel arrangements figured out. Going forward, after I know a little more of what to expect for an organized event, I would like to have things planned out and have some sort of process in place for myself.
I plan to add some interval work somewhere into my routine but I think I will add that a couple weeks from the race. I still have a bit of time before the event to figure it out.
I will also probably want to do some obstacle courses like the tough mudder or spartan race sometime in the future as well but haven’t thought too much about that yet. I think it is better to just focus on the task at hand first. But I think it is great to have goals to work towards and maybe I can raise more money for other charities!
Resources
[2] https://www.youtube.com/c/Bareperformancenutrition
[3] https://www.youtube.com/c/CFProjectMayhem [4] https://www.rei.com/learn/expert-advice/training-for-your-first-marathon.html
