As I begin training for the Auckland half marathon this week, I am hoping that I can still reach my goal of a sub-2 time. I get really annoyed at the stupid injury that prevented me building a solid base over the winter months. That would have been handy.
But instead of dwelling on that, I get out my trusty foam roller, and do another set of clams and bridges to keep my ITB happy. And I try to think about how my first half felt kind of easy and how I know I can do so much better. And as I run up my local hill that happens to be a similar grade/distance as the Harbour Bridge, I actually pretend it is.
When I'm really desperate, I thank goodness my injury even happened - after all, technically I am more biomechanically sound than before!
At the end of the day you can only do what you can do, and I'm definitely not giving up on my sub-2 goal. Lately I've built up my mileage to around the same level as this time last year. I hope to run more kilometres in training this year - via longer long runs, and an extra day of easy running thrown in during the week. Last year I felt like longer speedwork intervals benefited me more than the short ones, and I also felt improvements with tempo runs so I'll make sure to include them regularly too. As well as regular runs up my local "harbour bridge" :)
Let's see how I go!
Do you think I can do it - drop 11 minutes off my time from last year?
If you're a half-marathoner, do you have any special tips?
What's your favourite half marathon workout?
