I’m just about 16 weeks out from race day for my first Team Diabetes event of 2009, the Disney World Half Marathon.

In the past, as I get active in my running, I find myself picking up Runners World magazine for bits of inspiration. Right at the beginning of the magazine, they have a 2 page photo spread called Rave Run.

It features a lone runner somewhere on this planet, just out for a jog. They’re brilliant, and inspirational, like this one by David Norton from July 08.

It’s shots like this that make it easier to set the alarm early in the morning and get out for 5, 10 or 15k before the rest of the world is even awake. After taking the training advice from the team at Peak Centre for Human Performance seriously, and focussing on slow running to build my stamina this summer, it’s time to start jacking up the pace and mileage for the fall.

And that’s the other reason I love Runners World – the training plans. I’ve used them in the past, and they’ve worked very well.

When I went to the website to look for some ideas on training for my half marathon in January, I found a section of the site called Smart Coach.

You tell it your most recent race time, the distance you’re training for, which day of the week you’d like to set for your long run, how many weeks you’d like to train for and – bam – it spits out your schedule.

You’ll need to read the magazine a bit, or scan the website to understand tempo runs, and some of the jargon that it uses for training, but if you have a watch like my Garmin Forerunner 305, you can program it ahead of your training to beep when you need to pick it up, slow it down, or stay on pace.

So here’s what I’ll be up to for the rest of this year:

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Tags: goals, health