I have run a lot of miles over the last 20 plus years since I started cross country including a ton of races (mainly 5Ks.) But over the last 10 years, my running has been inconsistent because of all the typical excuses of adulthood. I have not ran an actual 5K race since 2006. But this Saturday I will be shaking off the rust tackling a brand new distance, the half marathon. I will be running in the Murray Half Marathon with several hundred other runners. Since this is a new racing distance I figured it would be a great time to ask for advice. Here is some background of my current training.
Training
- Started consistently running again in mid-October (started at 20 miles a week)
- Followed a 5K training plan mainly until early in January with no goal in mind (running 25 miles a week)
- In February I decided to run a half-marathon in April or May
- Starting increasing my long run in causing my mileage to increase
- Peaked out in mid-March at 36
- Faced a Back/Heal issue in late March limiting training down to 22-25 mile a week range
- April saw training go back up over 30 miles again
Most Recent Results of Note
April 14th - no warm-up cruised a 30:04 4 mile run, opening in 7:50, closing in 7:12
April 9th - Mile warm-up, hard 800m in 2:50, hard 800m in 3:10, Mile cool down
April 5th - 11 Mile Run in 90:00 (very relaxed) closing in 7:50
March 29th - 10 Mile Run in 78:00 (pushed last mile in 7:20)
All of this brings up some questions from me, what pace should I go after? Is 7:30 pace too much or too little? Should I start calmer for the first couple miles and push from there? The 5K is such a different distance, so this makes me a little nervous. The last time I ran a race over 5000 Meters was the 90s and that was only 5 miles. I have read multiple books on the marathon and half-marathon to try and cut the learning curve down. So if you are a veteran of longer distances and want to offer some words of advice I would appreciate it greatly.