Hi All,
I am a former sprinter/jumper that has taken about a decade off from any exercise and had gotten quite fat. I enrolled in a half marathon this October and have started training and dieting over the last month and a half or so. During this time I have shed a lot of weight (45 pounds) and focused on running 4 days a week while cross-training 3 days to prevent injury. I am slowly trying to ramp up to 6 days of running a week during September while making sure I am keep any injury concerns under control.
I am struggling with identifying a target half-marathon time given my rapidly changing fitness and would like to get some perspective on what you guys would target.
Here are a few facts:
1) I am in my mid-30s and started at 240 pounds and am down to around 195 pounds now. Plan on cutting another 10-15 pounds before race day. I have focused heavily on nutrition.
2) Could barely cover 2 miles when I started running in mid-June and have gained fitness somewhat rapidly. To put it in perspective I think it is even odds on being able to run a 7 minute mile on day 1.
3) Last 3 runs have looked as follows:
-Ten miler on Saturday on a VERY hilly course (8:08, 7:33, 7:43, 7:43, 7:55, 8:06, 7:12, 8:04, 7:33,
7:10)... Felt easy, could have gone another 5 or so.
-Five miler on Sunday on a flat course (8:21, 7:30, 7:25, 7:34, 7:05).... Was planning on recovery but felt pretty good.
-Eight miler on Tuesday (today) on a flat course (8:49, 8:01, 7:38, 7:35, 7:42, 7:24, 6:53, 6:06) ... Felt great. Decided to
run the last mile or two pretty hard but certainly felt like I had a lot left. I probably could have sustained that 6:06
pace for another 1.5 miles or so.
I suspect that given this is my first race over 800 meters since I was a sophomore in high school it would behoove me to go out at around 1:40 pace and then try to ramp it up in the back half of the race to build confidence around what I am hoping will be a number of half's and fulls over the next few years. I would be interested in what this group would target given the above info. Is 1:40 too conservative, too aggressive?
I know I am on the slow end for this board so try to take it easy on me. Happy to provide any other background information that would be helpful.