Half marathon result

Yesterday was the half marathon.  Despite more than her share of obstacles and scheduling constraints...Mary completed the Hyannis half marathon in 1:44:47...8:00 per mile pace.

Given all she went through...along with the limited training she was able to do...this was a good result.  It was also 4-5mins faster than a half marathon she did last Fall...although off her best.  The important thing was that she made progress and is well poised to really develop her fitness when her schedule opens up.


A few notes about Mary's training:

• We used walk breaks in several of the distance runs...particularly the long runs.  This was not an attempt to imitate the Galloway method...or any other method for that matter.  Using walk breaks during distance runs is simply an excellent way to get the volume of training up while limiting the stress.  Mary was training for a half marathon.  She needed some volume...but she hadn't been training much...and she had a high stress level.  Rather than crash training...this was a safer way to quickly build up training distance.
• We used patience.  We trained based on where Mary was at...not on where she wanted to be.  No rushing things.  Her training paces were set according to current fitness level...rather than an arbitrary time goal.  Accordingly, she made solid progress...and didn't get too beat up in the process.  If she continues to train based on current fitness levels, she'll continue to progress.

So there you go...