I can already feel the grit of evaporated sweat salt on my forehead .
It’s Half Marathon Training time, people! Today marks officially the 12-week countdown day for the Long Beach Marathon and I am psyched to start training. I’m looking forward to beating my half-marathon finish time from earlier this year, and to feel the tug of that hefty hunk of metal that my neck will lug around, telling the world that I did indeed complete the Beach Cities Challenge (that’s the Surf City, Orange County, and Long Beach half or full marathons consecutively if you didn’t know – but, now you know).
I’m anxious to get started in quickening my pace and re-building my endurance. I plan to follow the same schedule I used for my first marathon earlier this year. If this is your first half marathon, I’ve adapted that training calendar specifically for the Long Beach date on October 12th. The great thing about this schedule is that you can modify it to fit your needs. For example, Mondays are typically rest days, but I plan to run today (Monday) with my work running group, so I’ll switch my rest day to tomorrow. The important thing is to keep your “long” run sacred (most people do these on weekends), and to make sure you reach the total number of miles for the week. Using the schedule, you can keep track of your runs, and maybe even add your pace to see how you improve over the summer.
Feel free to download and tweak it for your needs.
And so it begins…