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Sorry to bump this old thread, But AF was blocked from work and have not accessed it for the last month or so 
Thanks for all the kind tips in all the Marathon threads floating - I completed my very 1st half marathon (Philly) and very thrilled about it, feels to good to complete your 1st one 
supersadface Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Grande- > > Good luck with your first half! You’ll crush your > goal if you train hard. My first half time was > 1hr44min (8:01 splits), which remains my best time > to date on a significant distance. I can’t > overstate how much race day adrenaline is going to > help you. Get a great mix of music and just let > loose. Expect to be a full 30-40 seconds faster > per mile just due to being so pumped about it > being race day. > > Also, I overtrained for the race - I had run 14 or > 15 miles as my longest distance run pre-race, and > was keeping my pace generally around 8:30 - 9:00 > minutes per mile. If your training schedule > allows it, I’d suggest you give it a shot. You’ll > be much more confident knowing that you’ve done a > longer distance. It’s not like a full marathon, > where you train up to 20 miles and expect race day > adrenaline to carry you the last six - try and > actually do the full distance (or more) pre race. > > We should get an AF running thread going. Anyone > looking for a run partner in NYC? I’m normally > doing laps in CP around either the full park or > the reservoir/bridal path. I need a partner supersad, I’ll hit you up in Central park when I gets back from vacation kiddo.
I try to do about two miles on the treadmill 4x a week in the 12-14 minute range. Similar to thommo77 I’m not really a runner, but just try to stay in shape either for tennis or just to burn off all the empty calories I get from sandwiches and pizza every day at business school. The fat calories are my primary motivation to crank hard on the treadmill…otherwise I’ll probably have to start buying pants with larger waist sizes, which I’m not quite ready to do yet.
numi Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I try to do about two miles on the treadmill 4x a > week in the 12-14 minute range. Similar to > thommo77 I’m not really a runner, but just try to > stay in shape either for tennis or just to burn > off all the empty calories I get from sandwiches > and pizza every day at business school. The fat > calories are my primary motivation to crank hard > on the treadmill…otherwise I’ll probably have to > start buying pants with larger waist sizes, which > I’m not quite ready to do yet. 12-14 minutes each or 12-14 minutes total?
I was referring to both miles, although my fastest two-miler these days is more like 12:45…probably should have said sub-13 minutes. I’m not a great runner, so for me, I consider it a medium to high-intensity run all the way. By the time I’m at about 1.5 miles, I’m really pushing myself hard the rest of the way. I basically set up a reward system so I can keep myself mentally in check, because at that point it’s mind-over-matter for me. I realize that 12 minutes for 2 miles is no big deal for a good high school cross-country athlete, but for me to stay in cardio shape it helps to think of random silly things like “If I can keep my two mile run before 14 minutes, I’ll win a million bucks” or something similar to that. There are other things that I try to do before a run or anything athletic, like hydrating the evening before and getting a good night’s rest. And then on days when I’m not going all out, I’ll try do some interval training because that more closely simulates the burst and stop-and-go movements in tennis, and it also helps build cardiovascular endurance so that the two miles don’t seem as taxing. I’m sure there are some serious runners on this forum so I’d be curious to hear their perspectives. For me, I generally find that endurance is certainly important for good runs, but the other big components are just hydrating/eating the right stuff, resting well and having mental toughness.
coffee one hour before run does wonders.
When I had a gym in my building I used to get up and run a 5:30 1 mile on the treadmill every morning. I would come back, take two shots of espresso from my F7 and take a shower. Talk about a jump start - you’re wide awake after that.