Here's a training schedule for walking the half-marathon....

[lmhall2000]

Hey! I found this on a link provided by another WISH Walker- thought it might be helpful for those planning to walk it to save as a favorite. Nows the perfect time to be building up to their rigorous suggestions...starting out at 2 miles 3x a week for 2 weeks then upping it every 2-4 weeks until you're walking between 15-20 miles a week- then try adding one long day of walking 6-8 miles on the weekend. I guarantee you- if you work towards this goal- you will be leaner and the weight will come off faster!

http://www.marathonwalking.com/example.html

Tara- still have 36 pounds to go and lots more miles to log before the WISHathon!! :)

[Cheryl N. WI]

Tara, Thanks for the link. I looked at the rest of the site too and book marked it. It looks like it has lots of good training info and motivational stories.

Cheryl:bounce:

[geetey]

Thanks for the link, Tara! I am saving this page along with the others I have bookmarked. What type of exercises do you think they might qualify as crosstraining? Elliptical?

[lmhall2000]

Hey Terry!

Cross-training is really anything that gets your heart rate up for more than 30 minutes and is different than walking! :) Gardening for me is cross training! :) But, I count my workouts at the Y cross-training even though I do 30 minutes treadmill because I follow it up with 40 minutes of nautilus- when spring starts I'm gonna add tennis back- it's been years since I felt comfortable playing- I'm all ready for it this year!

Let's get MOVING!!! YEAH!
Tara

[tiggerlover]

Hi marathoners! I just wanted to say good luck with your training and the marathon itself. What wonderful motivation this must be for you all!

I have a question though, just curious how far the marathon actual is?

[lmhall2000]

Well, you do give us quite the complement!! The key word here is half-marathoners!! :) I don't think I would ever want to walk a whole marathon- the lights in the city would be going out and I'd be the lone walker still trying to see the finish! :)

A marathon is about 26 miles and half, of course, would be 13....it will take us about 3.5 hours to walk it- and if you don't keep a 16 minute pace they pick you up off the course!! We sure wish you could join us- I know walking all those Italian hills would make you a pro...It takes most runners about 2-3 hours to run the whole 26 miles- so seeing all them packing up and going home when we still have miles to go will be challenging...but with all the WISH'ers around I know we'll have a BLAST!!!

Tara

[tiggerlover]

Originally posted by lmhall2000
Well, you do give us quite the complement!! The key word here is half-marathoners!! :) I don't think I would ever want to walk a whole marathon- the lights in the city would be going out and I'd be the lone walker still trying to see the finish! :)

A marathon is about 26 miles and half, of course, would be 13....it will take us about 3.5 hours to walk it- and if you don't keep a 16 minute pace they pick you up off the course!! We sure wish you could join us- I know walking all those Italian hills would make you a pro...It takes most runners about 2-3 hours to run the whole 26 miles- so seeing all them packing up and going home when we still have miles to go will be challenging...but with all the WISH'ers around I know we'll have a BLAST!!!

Tara

Thanks for the info, Tara. That is a long way to go, but I am confident that all of those WISHers who are committed will be successful!

Do they really pull you from the coarse if you don't keep te 16 minute pace? Wow, you would think they would let you go out there and do your best and if you finish that would be great. Seems a little limiting.

Where is the marathon taking place? And when exaxtly is it? I know it is early 2005, I didn't pay much attention since it didn't pertain to me, but with all this talk I am now curious.

Thanks again!

[lmhall2000]

I know being pulled off the course seems rather intimidating, I have this vision of me seeing arms outstretched to gather me up and me running my little tail off to escape them! :hyper:

But I think we can figure out some way to block those picker-uppers...we'll have a posse of 40 WISH'ers blocking the way saying if you take one of us you'll have to take us all! Would that work?

The race is January 9th next year- we would LOVE for you to come along- your long legs would easily keep you ahead of the cart! :) Give it some long consideration and COME ON!!! :)

Tara

[welovedis]

They definitely do "sweep" the course, but I would say that is for someone who is walking considerably slower than the 16 minute mile mark. I was doing about 16 minute miles average (because of the nosebleed) and finished just about the final cut-off (3:29:16) and I did not see the sweeper anywhere in sight. I think it was back farther because they did have to open the parks (like MK) and get those people out of there, so the sweeper might have been an incentive to either walk faster or drop out.

I do know that if your "official" time was more than 3:30:00, you did not receive a time on the disney site so I was lucky-31 more seconds and I wouldn't have gotten an official time. However, I do know some people who finished shortly about the 3 1/2 hour mark and they did still receive their medal. Not sure how that works but glad I got there in time!

Here are some other good sites for training programs for the 1/2 marathon:

1/2 Marathon Walking Plan (http://www.halhigdon.com/halfmarathon/walk.htm )

1/2 Marathon Novice Running Plan (http://www.halhigdon.com/halfmarathon/walk.htm )

Guide for Beginning Runners (http://www.halhigdon.com/beginrunner/intro.htm )

Walking a 5K (http://www.halhigdon.com/5K%20Training/5-Kwalk.htm)

Novice Runner 5K (http://www.halhigdon.com/5K%20Training/5-Knovice.htm)

These are just some of the great sites out there-I really liked the approach that Hal Higdon uses. I also read the Jeff Galloway book and used the run/walk method-it worked for me!

[mishoe01]

Karen and Tara - thanks for those links - not sure what I'm going to do yet - but now I have more choices!