Well I may be crazy, but I have decided to run the Inaugural Bridgehampton Half Marathon on Saturday, May 10th. Who’s with me?? The run will meander through storied Sagaponack and Bridgehampton, past potato fields and stunning estates, past working horse farms, and white sand beaches. At least it sounds pretty right? The race will start and end at the historic Beebe Windmill on Ocean Road, just south of Bridgehampton’s village center and proceeds will benefit the Bridgehampton Museum and Southampton Hospital….which is exactly where I hope I don’t end up after the race.

To prepare for this anxiety inducing goal, I reached out to my old cross country coach, Phil Ruder, who led our team at Buckingham Browne & Nichols School to the New England Championship years ago. If anyone can inspire me to keep going, Phil can. A lifelong competitive athlete, and now a professor of economics at Pacific University in Forest Grove, Oregon, Phil shares a great training plan for me to tackle in order to prepare for the “Bridgehampton Half”.  “A half marathon is vastly easier than an entire marathon, in my experience. The last 5 miles of a full marathon are just brutal because you are pushing your body past what it was designed to do. A half marathon stays well within those limits,” say Ruder.

My dad told me about these great Helly Hansen Challenger Running Tights which help your muscles have better recovery and prevent injury by combining premium compression fabrics with ergonomically placed supportive prints. The tights support your muscles, keep your thighs in place and give you a butt lift.

“If you are a good athlete, you are going to get into running shape pretty quickly. As that happens, don’t pile on more distance; rather, as you feel stronger, increase the quality of your runs. Besides running at a generally faster pace, you can make your runs more interesting and better for you by throwing in sprints in the middle of your runs. After 20 minutes of easy running, sprint from one telephone pole to the next then jog for two telephone poles and sprint again,” says Ruder.

Adding, “If you are running with a group — four or more — find a soccer field and break up into teams of two and have a friendly “race.” Start one on each team at one midfield sideline and the other across the field. The one runs around the perimeter of half the field to where the other is waiting, tags that person, who runs around the other half the field while the one jogs slowly across midfield to be there in time to get tagged by the partner and run hard around the half field while the other jogs across the midfield, and so on. Five to eight team laps ought to get everybody tired and ready for a 20-minute cool down.”

PHIL RUDER’S KEY TIPS TO TRAIN BY:

*Take the time to stretch at least a little before and after. More dynamic stretching, less static stretching would be my recommendation.

*Avoid pushing the distance too much. To train for a half marathon you really don’t much need to run more than 5 miles very often in your training.

*Listen to your body. If you are a bit sore from tired muscles, no problem. However, if you feel an injury developing, don’t train through it the way you would when you were 20 years old. Back off the distance. Maybe just stretch and run a slow mile instead of the 3 or 4 you might have planned.

*Supplement mid-event any time you are exercising for more than an hour straight. So mix some powdered sport supplement into your camelback or, my preference, carry some gel packs along and consume one a half hour before the event and then another one at mile 5.5 or 6 along with plenty of water throughout.

*Don’t underestimate the adrenalin you’ll have going on race day. The key there is NOT to start out faster than your target pace. If you’re not careful, you may find yourself running the first couple of miles at sub-minute-mile pace, and you will have too little gas in the tank at the end. If you hit 8 or 9 miles once a week late in your training, you won’t have trouble doing 13 on race day as long as you can avoid “rabbiting” out in that rush at the start.

Here is the training schedule Phil suggested, which I am following. It should be treated as a very approximate guide. Back off the distance if your body tells you to!

Mon    Tue      Wed       Thu      Fri    Sat        Sun

Week 1    off    3 miles   3 miles  3 miles  off  3 miles  4 miles
Week 2   off   3 miles   4 miles  3 miles   off   3 miles   4 miles
Week 3   off   3 miles   4 miles  3 miles   off   3 miles  5 miles
Week 4   off   3 miles   5 miles  3 miles   off   4 miles  6 miles
Week 5   off   4 miles   5 miles  4 miles   off   3 miles  7 miles
Week 6   off   4 miles   4 miles  4 miles   off   4 miles  8 miles
Week 7   off   4 miles   6 miles  4 miles   off   4 miles   9 miles
Week 8  off   4 miles    3 miles  3 miles   off   1 mile    RACE

Need a training partner? Join group runs with race partners: Lululemon in East Hampton has a run club as well and several people will be training for the half but they have not yet determined the day/time the training runs will be held this spring. Gubbins in Southampton will have group runs from starting in April on Sunday mornings, time TBD.

Good luck!

For more information please go to : http://bridgehamptonhalf.com/