Virginia Beach 1/2 Marathon

The Virginia Beach 1/2 marathon is only a week away. I have worked up to 7 miles. I had been following Hal Higdon’s 12 week, 1/2 marathon training plan, but injured my knee a month ago.

Reasons I injured my knee:

• that plan does not follow the 10% rule. Once I realized that, I threw the plan out the window and just decided to increase the mileage by 10% every two weeks. With my knee pain, I didn’t feel I could keep up 10% every week. (tho, now my knee is mostly better, so I will have to revise my training…)
• also, on the same day where the training plan made a 20% jump in mileage, I went out on a long run and pushed myself too fast up hills. So, I learned don’t combine a long run with a hill workout! Now when I hit a hill on my long run, I go very slow, or even stop to walk up it.
• lastly, I was changing my running form, and probably pushed myself too hard in general to get up to speed with a new form.

In general, I view pain as a challenge to find out what I’ve done wrong. Many people over 40 who start to run give it up as soon as they feel pain. I say don’t give up….find out what’s causing the pain and correct it.

Anyway, my strategy for the VA Beach event is to combine running with walking. They have local bands playing on the street at every mile marker…so I will just stop and walk for a few minutes to enjoy each band, then start running again. I hope to complete the race in 3 hours.

My running goal for the future is to get my long run to 10 miles.