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A 19-week training plan for running the Athens Half Marathon (with me!) on Nov. 3
Good morning (or even afternoon), friends! 👋
If you’ve only just joined us as a subscriber, today is day one of a journey I plan to take toward running a half marathon this fall — the AthHalf, in Athens, Ga., this November. And I’d love to have you join me for the race!
I’ve put together a plan that will train us for the (almost) 19 weeks between today and race day (Sunday, Nov. 3) — it’s all listed out in the training schedule below, with dates and the miles you’ll need to run each day, gradually building up to 13.1 miles.
(Our training starts tomorrow, by the way — Tuesday, June 25, with an easy three-mile run.)
I’m really excited to get together to run with you again, like we did at the Richmond Half Marathon last fall — not only because I’m ready to test myself to see if I can run this distance again, but also as a way to make up for the first half of the year, when my own running and commitment to my fitness hasn’t been where I’d like it to be.
There’s a part of me that feels as if I’m always at the start of things, or that I’m always going back to the place where I need to start again. Like the mythical Sisyphus, pushing and pushing his boulder up a hill, only to return to the spot where he started pushing once again.
And yet, it does feel good to start again. When the day just passed hasn’t been what you expected, or planned, or hoped for, it feels good to just tear off the proverbial date page in the calendar and start fresh — to “come back tomorrow and wipe this day off the books forever,” as Brad Pitt’s Paul Mclean says to his brother Norman after an especially awful day in 1992’s A River Runs Through It.
In my own life, I’m realizing that I’m at a point where I, and many of the people I love, are going through a transition. I’m in my early fifties and my parents are in their early eighties, while my wife’s parents are in their mid- to late-seventies. My father and father-in-law are starting to experience some serious health challenges, ones we’re still trying to grasp and understand. (And starting to accept that we can manage, but maybe not fully overcome.)
At the same time, we’re also raising our kids and watching them grow and blossom, try new things, walk out on their own legs for the first time, like a baby horse who’s just been born. Which is exciting, and awesome, (and kinda nerve-wracking!) and fun.
There was a time in my life I believed everything would always travel in a straight line, that life would always lead onwards and upwards. Now, of course, I can see that rarely happens. Life zigs, it zags, you make progress and you take some steps backward.
Why am I sharing this with you? Because even I, the person who writes this newsletter, fall into the trap of thinking there will be a perfect time to devote myself to fitness in a more committed way. That once whatever my current anxiety-producing situation is past, then I can become the person I hoped I’d always be.
That, I’m — still! — learning, almost never happens. There’s really only today, this moment, right now, and that I have to make the most of the one that’s right in front of me, rather than wait for some perfect time or set of circumstances to arrive.
So, what do you think? Ready? Up for running thirteen with me? I hope you are, because I love so much what The Half Marathoner community has become over these past years, and I’d love to catch up with you at a race we can run together — whether it’s the AthHalf, or another race later.
As always, keep in touch and let me know how your running/life is going — in the comments, or in reply back.
Your friend,
— Terrell
Our training schedule
Week 1
Tuesday, June 25 — 2-3 miles
Thursday, June 27 — 3 miles
Saturday, June 29 — 3 miles
Sunday, June 30 — 2 miles
Week 2
Tuesday, July 2 — 3 miles
Thursday, July 4 — 3 miles
Saturday, July 6 — 3 miles
Sunday, July 7 — 2 miles
Week 3
Tuesday, July 9 — 3 miles
Thursday, July 11 — 3-4 miles
Saturday, July 13 — 4 miles
Sunday, July 14 — 3 miles