Hey, first post so apologies if this is the wrong place to post or the format is off etc.
Started running in July ‘23 to get back into shape. Always was very fit and played tennis to a fairly high level all through school but an arm injury right before college and covid started derailed things and ended up gaining 20kg through college. First run was July 1st and just about scraped under 30 mins.
By September I’d lost about 5kg and my 5k was down to 21:16 and my 10k was 44:26 and signed up for a half marathon in November. November came round and I did the half in 1:29:46 and down another 5kg and started feeling the beginnings of my fitness coming back.
Last month I decided to sign up for Amsterdam in October so each week for the last 3 weeks I tried a 5,10 and half marathon effort to see where I’m at. Got a 16:56 5k parkrun, a 10k in 35:42 and did a half today in 1:19:14. My average is about 30-40km a week running 3 or 4 times a week. Not following a plan or anything but generally a 10 & 8k during the week, a parkrun on Saturday and then maybe 12-17k on Sunday.
Presumably I’ll need to bump the mileage up because mine seems low relative to what I’ve seen and the thought of 42k sounds daunting but by October is sub 2:45 doable? Still have a few kilos left to shed and I wanna push myself but I also don’t wanna blow out going for something maybe too ambitious?
also are apps like Runna and so on good for training plans? Feel like I’d benefit from something structured but are they any better than any pdf you’d find all over the internet?
thanks for any advice