The Master Plan

In case you are following my blog for more than a hot second, you probably know that my number one running goal for this year is to run a half marathon in less than two hours.

I knew I wouldn’t run a sub-2 in my first half marathon of the year. Turned out, I didn’t even run that half marathon, which I planned to be my second one. I got frustrated and did not really train at all. Since my worst running month ever in December 2011 (I ran a whopping 18 km that month…), I had very good weeks and very bad weeks.

Last week was the first week this year where I didn’t run at all. This was mostly due to the fact that I had a root canal and really didn’t feel good until a week later. At some time, I was begging for someone to pull out that tooth (glad they didn’t, since it turned out I did not die like my crazy self thought during painful nights). Running wasn’t on my mind AT ALL.

This week, my knee started to hurt again. It does that sometimes, but it got a lot better than it was last year. (I was injured last July and I couldn’t run for weeks. Until this year, every run meant that I would have issues with my knee.) On Friday, I ran 4,9 km with a little pain. That was ok though, because it was my first run in 11 days.

Over this 11 days of not running, I did not forget about my Nr. 1 running goal this year: SUB-2!

I have secretly concocted a plan that will help me become superwoman- or at least one of the averaged girls that run half marathons in 1 hour, 59 minutes and 59 seconds!

looks like an awesome masterpiece, right?

Since I pretty much suck in sticking to running plans (I think I have had two this year and did not finished one), I am going to be all official. So in case I don’t stick to my training plan, you are welcome to tell me how big of a loser I am. I might not like to hear that, but I will love you later on. Promise!

You can find my trainings plan under “Training” or here.

My trainings plan includes a race on May 27, which is very hilly and a tiny bit longer than a half marathon (21,5 km). This won’t be a real racing-race, but one of my most important training runs. I am definitely not going to run a sub 2 here, mostly because it has too many hills for me and as far as I know also includes trails, but I still hope to get a shiny (little) PR (my first and only half marathon was in 2008 and I finished in 2:21:36).

The big sub-2-race is going to be the Hamburg half marathon. This is the race I did back in 2008, and it is well-organized (with lots of water stations) and not as hilly. It only has one big minus: it’s in the end of June and it might be extremely warm. I hope it won’t be as hot as it was back in 2008, but if it will be, I hope that I will be prepared!

I am not officially signed up for both races yet. Somehow, I have the fear that once I signed up, I will not be able to run it- either because I have to be somewhere else (this was the case after I signed up for my half marathon in March) or because I have issues with my knee. I checked both the participant limits and the numbers of runners who already signed up, and there is still plenty of space in both races. I’ll sign up when I feel comfortable enough to do so.

As I did over the past weeks, I will be writing weekly recaps. Also, for quicker and shorter information, I will try to update the trainings plan as much as possible.

Do you have any tips on how to stick with a trainings plan? Have you had problems, too? Any good training or racing advice? What’s your next big race?