ESB

I surprised myself back in November by finishing my 1st half marathon in under 90 minutes at the Newton Chilly Half Marathon.  I had ran just a single 5k race in the last 15 years and have always suffered from knee pain whenever I would attempt to get back into running.  But competing in the Tough Mudder last summer forced me to train for a 10-mile run (which in retrospect wasn't necessary since the steepness at Mount Snow, VT forced even the elite athletes to walk much of the course).

While training for the Mudder, I started reading my "change my life" book:  Born To Run.  I switched from waffle stompers to Saucony Kinvara minimalist shoes and slowly started increasing my mileage with more forefoot striking.  My knee pain immediately went away and became a complete non-factor all the way through my half marathon.

For my half marathon I used the Furman FIRST training program which has you run only 3 times per week:  interval Tuesdays, tempo Thursdays, distance Weekends.  This was perfect for me as I didn't have the time to run 5-6 times per week like most programs required.  Plus it seemed to pose less of an injury risk since I was still worried about my knee.  The runs themselves are extremely intense to make up for the smaller quantity of workouts.  On off days it expects you to do some sort of cross training exercises, although I pretty much neglected these.

In a few months I went from thinking marathon runners were lunatics to wanting to try one myself!  My half marathon time predicts a 3:07 full marathon time which is just 2 minutes off from qualifying for the Boston Marathon.  The rational part of me knows I should simply try finishing my 1st marathon, but I'm ultra-competitive with little to no outlets anymore and am on the wrong side of 30.

I've yet to sign up for a race yet, but am planning on finding a May race before it gets too warm.  Wish me luck.

Labels: born to run, boston marathon, furman first, newton chilly half marathon, saucony kinvara, tough mudder