I started running on September 18 last year. A couple of HS friends invited me to my first 10k. I had mixed feelings about it. Back in UP Diliman, I would run around Acad Oval. The thing is, I can’t even keep up for five minutes back then. Eventually, I gave in, and it’s just a different kind of high when you see a lot of people running, all shapes and sizes.
Guess what, my next run after that was a 21k, hahaha! But mind you, that first 21k is still my PR right now for that distance. It took me 2:35 gun time to finish Adidas King of the Road 2011. I don’t know what got into me that time, I just kept running, I wasn’t thinking about the time, no watch, no gadget, no anything to track my time. I was just so excited. And here I am, I’m not improving much on my running. I’ve ran four 5K’s, 7 10K’s, three 16K’s and five 21K’s. Thought about it for a time now and realized that there is no stopping me from becoming a decent runner. I just need the right game plan, and I’ve found it. I’m going to put it out there – I will run a full marathon in the first quarter of next year! I’m planning to run “The Bull Runner Dream Marathon”. Hope I get a slot.
I searched for training plans and I think I found what I need – some stuff from Jeff Galloway’s site and my favorite running blog, Old Man Running (wrote about it on a previous post). These are just templates, but as how I’ve done things in the past, I still listen to my body well. If I feel like I’m doing too much, I try to slow it down and when things get a bit too easy, I step it up a little. Just eye on the target – FULL MARATHON NEXT YEAR!!
I’ll take it one step at a time. First thing that I think I need to accomplish is get a good PR at a half marathon. I’ll train for that first, then I’ll just think about what I’m going to target next when I get that goal. I believe that the best piece of advice that I got from reading is that to know where you’re at first. And by saying that, I don’t plan on jumping to a completely new training plan. I’ll just tweak what I have right now. Good luck to me on my road!