The Next Step...

So the Goofy is over and I enjoyed my week off thoroughly. I decided to sign up for the ING Georgia Half Marathon, which takes place March 29th. I'm also going to track my training mileage. I'm basing my mileage around the Hal Higdon Intermediate Half Marathon Plan. I'm going to try to break the 2 hour mark (9:00 pace), with a goal time of around 1:50 (8:30 pace). I'm not really sure how realistic 8:30 is but I think 9:00 is pretty doable. My achilles tendon has been acting up since the Goofy, so I'm trying to take it kind of slow starting back. I'm going to do some strength training based on Hal Higdon's recommendations in his training plan. My training also includes speed work and tempo runs. I stayed away from these training techniques during my Goofy training but am looking forward to incorporating them this time.

I'm also going to run a 10K or two this spring as I prepare for the Half. I decided to do this for two reasons. First, it's good race prep work. Second, I want to qualify in either group 1A or 1B for the Peachtree Road Race this year. I haven't done the Peachtree, which is the largest single location 10K race in the world, so I'm going to do it this year just to knock it out. With about 55,000 people at the start, I REALLY want to be in the front. The only way to get up there for this race is to qualify by running another race during the year. 1A requires a time between 42:00 and 49:50, 1B is between 50:00 and 54:59.

I'll update this blog along the way!