1/2 marathon training plan

So yay... I am offically training for my first 1/2 marathon.

I just started training last saturday but it feels so real. I can not wait till Nov 17th.

I will be running the Thunder Road Marathon in Charlotte. Here is the Offical Thunder Road page.

Even though I have ran off and on throughout my life I have never really trained for a race on my own.

My running story starts when I was in High School.

One of my friends who is an avid runner persaded our school to start a cross country team my senior year of high school. At first I was pretty nervous but I thought it would be fun. I always had run when I was playing soccer in highschool and I liked it pretty good.

All we did was run 5k's, which was awesome.. in about a 3 month time I got my time down from about 28 mins to 22 mins. I was pretty impressed....But from running I ended up gettting killer shin splints.

After that I would run some and do some races like a 5k s, a 4 miller and some Turkey Trots that ranged from 8 to 10k's.

They were all awesomly fun but I never really got into that much becuase I would end up starting running and go out for a 5 mile run. And even though my cardiovascular system could take it... my legs could not.

I get shin splints so easlily so ever single time I would always get them.

This time I am hoping will be very different.

I am using this training plan.

It is 16 wks long...( I think I have about 19 weeks till the 1/2) so I have some wiggly room.

I wanted a little bit of a longer training program, well b/c I have time and b/c I wanted to keep my legs safe. I don't want to push it to hard... but I do want to be able to run the whole race and end with a decent time.

(i have really no idea what that might be... right now I am running around a 8:30 to 9 minute mile while doing 3 mile runs)

I really am so excited to start running. :)

I have a feeling I am gonna get addicted.

I have already done two 3 mile runs.  

I have always been addicted to working out (usually with workout DVDs) but never to running.

I also bought some new shoes! ( to help the whole no shin splint thing)

Questions:

Have you ever run a 1/2 marathon?

Any good running tips?

What was your workout for today?

-mine was Sculpt 30 (Turbofire) and then a 3 mile run during lunch :)