Great North Run 2015 Part 2

Hope nobody was holding their breath for part 2 but here it is...

What I would have written in this next part if I had completed it all in one go would have been something along the lines of coming up with a training plan and getting out there and running regularly with my new found motivation. However I can now write with the benefit of hindsight and it's not quite as positive as I would have hoped.

Good news: There has been some running

Bad news: But not much of it

I've been out a total of 2 times covering a massive 5.85 miles. Still trying to stay on the positive though I did a few laps of a local playing field and did a mile in under 10 minutes which isn't much compared to where I was a few years ago but at least shows I do have a little bit of pace in me. The scary thing is that my mile pace was 9:43 and I will need to be doing around 9:10 for the whole 13.1 miles of the GNR if I want to achieve my goal of running a half in under 2 hours. Being realistic this may not be achievable as I'm effectively a newbie again but I've got enough time to see where I can get to as long as I can remain motivated and stick to my training plan. Might have to sneak in another race or two in the build up just to keep me motivated, or to put it another way, to scare myself into training!

So, what is the plan?

Well it's actually plans in the plural at the moment as the GNR is still so far away. I've worked backwards from the date of the race and as my goal is to run under 2 hours I'm going to do the sub-2 hour plan that I used the last time I ran a half marathon, which was Silverstone in March 2012 which I did in 2:01:37. That's a 12 week plan so starting next week I'm doing a 16 week plan with a pace aimed at doing the half in 2 hours 15 minutes. Is it realistic to plan to knock 15 minutes off my time in 12 weeks? Maybe not, but then I may get under the 2 hours 15 minute mark anyway. Looking back at the predictions I made for the 2 half marathons I've done before both times I was quicker than predicted so you never know!

All that remains now is to actually stick to the plan, get some miles in and see how it goes. I'm currently toying with the idea of doing some before work running in the week as I'm generally knackered when I get home from work and have no desire to go back out again. Of course this will mean getting up earlier and I'm not a morning person but we'll see.

So that about brings us up-to-date. Hopefully I'll get a short run in on Sunday and then the training starts properly on Tuesday. Hopefully there'll also be some semi-regular blog updates on my progress.