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Uh-oh—only 9 weeks until my half-marathon!

I'm embarrassed to say that I haven't gone on a run longer than 9 km since the Toronto 10-miler almost 4 weeks ago. Bad! And even worse, I just counted and I have just 9 weeks until I'm on my way to the airport to travel to San Francisco for the half-marathon on October 18.

So. I'd better get on a program, fast.

I'm going to kick it off with a 10 km race tomorrow, the Island Girl 10K on Toronto Island. (For those of you who've never been here, there's an island/group of islands in the Toronto harbour, with parkland, an amusement park, some housing and even a small airport. Unfortunately it doesn't quite look like the picture, but it's as close as we get around here!)

It's going to be a beautiful course, I think, but hot—and the race doesn't start till 10:30, so the sun will be pounding down on us. Better than rain, of course, but I'll definitely be applying sunscreen before and after. Hopefully there will be some nice soft breezes coming off the lake.

Then, I need a plan. Runner's World recently ran a half-marathon special issue, and they have a training plan for people like me who've never run this distance before. One of the features I like is they don't take your mileage too high, which is important for me as I've been prone to overuse injuries. It's a 10-week plan of four runs a week and cross-training twice a week, which is perfect for me, and I think I'll start on Monday. Wish me luck!

And if any of you are interested in getting into races, a fall 5K is the perfect place to start. Check out our 8-week training plan to get started.

View all of Kat's running posts on the Half-marathon diaries home page.

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Posted by Kat Tancock onFriday, August 14th, 2009 - 5:15pm

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2 Comments

Thanks, Jan! The race was fun, but very hot. My favourite part: instead of medals, they handed out leis (plastic) at the finish line, in keeping with the "island girl" theme.

Glad to hear you're enjoying your mp3 player. I find that whether I use mine depends on my mood - on sunny mornings, I prefer to run without, but at the end of a long day, I love to run with music.

Submitted by Kat Tancock, web editor on Mon, 2009-08-17 10:30am.

good luck on your run tomorrow, it is going to be humid, too I think - I would find that really difficult as I always run at 6 a.m. I don't think you have to worry about not running longer than 9k, you have lots of time to increase that distance, and as the program I have been following advises, do not give in to the urge to run further just because it feels so good, because that is when you get the injuries. I have 6 weeks to go to my half, and my schedule suggests running 10k at this point, so I am trying not to go over that. Good Luck tomorrow!
(I am starting to get a little panicky myself though when I think how far 13.1miles really is) I bought an MP3 player last week, and much to my surprise I really found it motivating to run with, so I will keep that little trick up my sleeve for the race.

Submitted by Jan on Sat, 2009-08-15 1:24pm.