Sleepless Knight
Jedi Knight Seeking His Jedi Princess
- Joined
- May 15, 2008
Actually, I believe you have plenty of time to train for the half and maybe even the challenge if you wanted to. You already have more experience running than I did when I started training for my first half. I had never run any kind of race before my first half in 2011. Even then my training started uneven and I eventually had to skip the low mileage weekends to get all my long runs in before the half. Meaning I increased my long distance run by 1.5 miles per week culminating in running 14 miles 2 weeks before the half.I am late to the game, but noticed that the 10K was sold out other than with the challenge. Does anyone think they'll open any more slots for the 10K if they don't get a lot more registrations for the challenge? I remember that happened for Wine & Dine, the 10K was sold out then bam, more slots opened. I've never ran a half, 10K has been my furthest and I'm afraid it's too late to start training for a half at this point, I've been horribly slacking at running the past few months, last race was a 5K in October.
This is only the 3rd week of the Galloway plan for the Half or the First Order Challenge. Here's what the plan looks like for the rest of month. Note that the back to back runs start in February for the challenge per the Galloway plan. I used the beginner plan for the Half taken directly from the runDisney website.
First Order Challenge Half
January 6: 5 miles January 6: 4 miles
January 13: 3 miles January 13: 2 miles
January 20: 6.5 miles January 20: 5 miles
January 27: 4 miles January 27: 6.5 miles
The Galloway plans for both the challenge and the half also call for 2 maintenance runs of 30-45 minutes a week, usually on Tuesday and Thursday.
If you want to run the half only, then all you really need to do is just walk 4 miles this Saturday and you will be "caught up" with the Galloway plan. Don't worry about speed. Just focus on getting 4 consecutive miles in. Consistently training will allow you to build up your endurance and speed especially if you do the maintenance runs no slower than the minimum pace of 16 minutes per mile. The maintenance runs are the key to maintaining your current level and the long runs allow you to build up the necessary endurance.
Now, let's say you want to run the challenge. My idea is not an "attempt" to get those missing 2 weeks back. Rather it's an attempt to start from where you are and safely build up the mileage to catch up with the Galloway plan before long. The 1.5 increase from the 6th to the 13th is fine and the 2 mile increase from the 13th to the 20th is not dangerous.
January 6: 3 miles
January 13: 4.5 miles
January 20: 6.5 miles
Under this modification, you are "caught up" on January 20th. Again, don't focus on speed right now. Focus on getting the miles in on the "long" runs and the minutes in on the maintenance runs. Doing the twice a week maintenance runs will allow you to keep your most recent long distance for roughly 2-3 weeks. If you were to do those maintenance runs and start training this Saturday, you will be "caught up" with the Galloway plan by January 20th for the First Order Challenge and can then resume the Galloway plan as outlined.
Now, if you sign up for the half or the challenge and follow the Galloway plan, you will have a 12.5 mile long run on March 24th. Just add in another 0.6 miles to that run and voila, you've gone 13.1 miles on or before March 31st and are thus eligible for Kessel Run if you complete the Dark Side Half in April.
I used a similar modified plan to get my sister ready for a half after she started training 3-4 weeks after the plan formally began and used the gradual build up principles on distance runs to get myself from an exhausting 5 miles after not having run in 6 weeks to the Avengers Half on just 3 weeks training. You have over 3 months until the Dark Side half. If you really want to do it, you can.