Trying to get back on track

After a few weeks of just maintaining, I'm bored and feel that along with the warmer weather and with my winter bugs now behind me (hopefully) that I need to get back on track with my 2012 goal of reaching marathon distance as the year so far is flying by.

Two things have happened so far to help me to this; 

1. I have finally purchased a new pair of shoes and
2. I am considering entering the Yeovil Half Marathon.

Shoes - This time around I've changed from a purely cushioning pair (Asics Gel Cumulus 12) to a stability pair (Asics Gel-1160) of running shoe.  From reading the blurb, stability shoes seem better suited to my feet, running bio-mechanics, they provide a good level of support and are for runners looking to increase their mileage so it will be interesting to see whether I get on with them better once I have run them in.

Asics Gel-1160

Half Marathon - I saw the Yeovil Half Marathon advertised last week and to see whether I have a reasonable chance of getting back up to a 13 mile run in time, I pushed myself harder on my last run of the week where I managed to run a third of a half marathon relatively quickly.  This has given me some confidence that I could complete a 13 mile run using the Galloway technique i.e. with scheduled walk breaks in a months time.  Although, I'm still trying to work out whether I will be able to run it without my normal motivational music as headphones are banned at this race which is a little annoying.  The reason they gave is safety reasons...I'll just have to pray hope that the atmosphere is better than at Salisbury, especially for those towards the back of the pack and is enough to carry me through...

To that end and to get back on track with my current marathon running programme I have devised the following schedule to ease me back into my training (plant me back at week number 13 (out of 32)) and hopefully give me enough preparation for the race at the end of Week 4:

Week 1 (27 Feb - 04 Mar) - 30 min, 30 min, 6 miles,

Week 2 (05 Mar - 11 Mar) - 30 min, 30 min, 10.5 miles,

Week 3 (12 Mar - 18 Mar) - 30 min, 30 min, 6 miles,

Week 4 (19 Mar - 25 Mar) - 30 min, 30 min, 30 min, 13.1 miles (Race Day).

The test will be Week 2, if I manage the long run that week using the Galloway technique and if its not too late, I will enter the Yeovil Half Marathon.  If I get to and turn up on race day, it will be interesting to compare my time with last years although I still feel that I've got a long way to go to get up to the fitness level I was when I completed my 1st half marathon last October!