Run a 20km without enough training – race recap part one

Hey guys !

 

Today I am back to share my thoughts about training for a 20km !! In my latest thinking out loud post I briefly mentioned that I was doing the 20km of Paris. Well today I am proud to say that I ran my first 20km , on a beautiful sunny day and that it felt great ( maybe not so great in the last 4km ^^)

Anyway here is the story of how it all began

Since I started running regularly ( maybe 3 years ago) , I have always wanted to run a half-marathon. Truth is, with medschool being there I was afraid I wouldn’t have the time to run and commit to a training plan so I never dared to participate in one. This june, I finished my last year in medschool and knew I would only start residency in November so I had plenty of time to train for the 20km of Paris which took place on the 9th october of 2016.

course-versailles-2

Initially, I wanted to start my training mid-july. Which would make 12 weeks of training, 3 or 4 times a week.  That was a solid plan, and I was very confident I could , with enough training , finish the 20km in less than 2hours. But, life happens and it did not go this way.

 

Firstly, running more than twice a week when you’re not at home and in your daily routine is not so easy folks. I had family reunions, friend reunions, lots of parties and so on and so on … And I actually chose to enjoy those which was a good thing. From mid august I knew it would be easier to stick to the plan because I was working for a 6 week rotation in obgyn. Little did I know that i was going to be sooooo hot at the end of august in Paris + I did some 24hour on call days witch did not help with motivating myself.

 

 

course-versailles

 

I knew I would never be able to finish a 20km race, if i didn’t run at least my long runs. I had never run more than 10km in my life so I had to force myself to run at least those. I dragged myself out for those runs and ran, for 1h30 or 1h40 doing at most 13,5km. I had a scheduled 15km on the plan, but knee pain from the boyfriend transformed that run in a mere 12km run. Anyway , in september I ran once , sometimes twice a week  with one long run >10km and one easy 4 or 5km. This is, way less than normally needed for a half-marathon training plan. But on the other hand, this is a lot more than I was used to run usually during the week.

 

 

I must tell you folks, I always liked to go for a run , spontanously, whenever I felt the need for it. But following and sticking to a plan, OMG I did not thought this would be so difficult. I probably would have needed a training buddy , for sure. But my fellow 20km girlfriend opted out of it 3 weeks after starting to train because of knee joint pains… I certainly did not asked or looked for another buddy that’s also true. But I did , what I could, with my motivation.

 

howtoruna20kmwithoutpropertraining

 

So, one week before the 20km I knew I wasn’t the most prepared runner. But, I am in my mid twenties, I am ok fit and I ran 4 times more than 10km in the past month which was a bigger achievement than I have ever done in running for me. So, I googled ” how to finish a half-marathon without training”, yes, I did.

And thank you for those who did wrote an article on this. I felt less lonely , for one. and two I felt confident that I could, in fact finish those 20km even without having trained properly. And for all of those who don’t stick to their training plans, or run only half of it etc. etc…. It is actually possible to finish a 20km without sticking to the plan :).

 

And  the actual race recap will be for another post, because I feel  I am being to wordy !!

 

Time for a chat: Have you ever run a half-marathon or 20km race ? Where you prepared for it ? Did you stick to the training plan ?

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...

2 Replies to “Run a 20km without enough training – race recap part one”

  1. I have run a 1/2 marathon, three actually. And now I can’t find the time to train for another one. Life is always so busy that it’s just too hard!

    1. Wow 3 1/2 marathons , that’s great :). And it’s true that it’s difficult to find the time to train, but at least we can say we did it !

Leave a Reply

CommentLuv badge

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.