Hi everyone,
I'm new here and I'm hoping you can give me advice because I just took part in my very first race and am now starting to think about what I want to do next.
I ran the Brussels 20K in 1:30:26 and am considering signing up for the Brussels Semi-Marathon in October where I would shoot for sub 1:30. Does this seem realistic?
Here, off the top of my head, are some factors that may be relevant:
- I am a 32-year old male, measuring 1.80m (5-11) and weighing 77kg (171lbs)
- In terms of training, after years with hardly any exercising at all, I started going to the gym in October 2012. I would go twice a week, and every workout was a combination of some essentially random weightlifting and running on a treadmill, where I would alternate between sessions mainly devoted to intervals and sessions where I would try to improve my time on 5K, 10K, or 15K. By March, my PBs were sub 21 for 5K, sub 44 for 10K and sub 1:08 for 15K.
- Starting early April, I followed an 8-week, 3-session-per-week training plan I found online. Although I did go by the instructions, I guess I still have to say I followed the plan loosely because, even though the instructions were given as a percentage of one’s maximum heart rate (70, 80 or 90%), I didn’t use a heart monitor ; instead, I relied on how I felt to determine how hard I should be going. Also, there was a week in early May when I hardly did anything at all because I had felt pain in my left foot and wanted to have my ankle and Achille’s tendon checked.
- On race day, I relied all but exclusively on how I felt to pace myself. I had no watch, no heart monitor, and the pace setters told me they would be starting off fast to compensate for a tough finish. As this was my first race, I did not want to take such an approach, meaning the pace setters were a mildly useful reference at best.
- The Brussels Semi-Marathon is on October 6 (or 7, I forget) and the course is very similar to the race I did on Sunday; from what I can tell, if anything, it might be slightly flatter.
- I will be back down to two sessions per week until early August, and right now my plan is to do more or less what I was doing from October to March. Starting in August, I would go back to 3 sessions a week, hopefully with a new training porgram that doesn't require a heart monitor.
I'm really looking forward o reading your insights. Thanks a lot!