Do I even attempt it?

A very dear friend of mine for nearly 30 years just emailed me a note telling me she would be in the area in Sept doing a half marathon. She just completed her first 10K. She asked if I would be interrested in joining her. I don't know if this is a realistic option for me for a few reasons....
1. I spend most of my time on the bike and use running as my cross training option and although I'm willing to trade some of my biking for running I don't want to compromise too much of it.
2. I only run a 5K currently.
3. As a working parent of a 3 and 5 year old my time to train is limited to 1 hour 4-5 times weekly.

Is this something that is unrealistic for me to even consider?

Do you want to do it?

Unless you're really fast, I think you're going to need one longer run. I don't think I'd attempt a half unless I'd run at least 10 miles several times. Is it possible to rearrange your schedule to give you time for that once a week - at least for the last few weeks of your pre-taper training?

Do I want to do it? Absolutely....I've never been known to turn down a challenge...HOWEVER - I also make it a point to set goals I'm reasonably confident I can achieve with some effort. That is the issue here - I'm not sure about this one. This is a friend I haven't seen in over a year and this is a great opportunity to reconnect with a goal - however I don't want to let her down and say yes then back out on her.

I admire triathletes, but I've found that for me it's hard to conciliate running and cycling. Either I have a running focus, or I have a cycling focus, but I find it hard to do one properly without compromising the other, for any distance over 10K as far as running is concerned.

If you're preparing for a half marathon, you'll have to build up to long runs of least a 2-hour time, not counting two runs a week of lesser duration. So three runs a week is pretty much necessary.

If you're ready to make that commitment and try something new, then by all means do it!

Realistically you'll probably need to run 3 (maybe 4) times a week, one of those increasing in distance and the others some kind of intervals and/or tempo running.
Cycling will benefit your endurance, but you'll still have to switch focus. It's probably going to be the long run that's the hardest to make time for. If you can do that, you can do it. :)

You'll probably have to start training 2 (maybe 3) months beforehand, too, so it will be through the late summer. The advantage I suppose is that up until then you can increase your running-as-cross-training and then switch to running more later.

Tough decision, but even if you decide not to do it, you can meet up and cheer her on - a cheering squad is always much appreciated. :)

Well the comments here pretty much validate what everyone at home is telling me....I can't do the half marathon without compromising A LOT of bike time...but the good news is I just found out that they are doing a 10K at the same time as the half my friend is running so I can run with her for almost half of her run, should not slow her down too much since she is going more than twice the distance, and then cheer her in at the finish line.....and not give up much if any of my time on the bike.

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Originally Posted by drdwin

Well the comments here pretty much validate what everyone at home is telling me....I can't do the half marathon without compromising A LOT of bike time...but the good news is I just found out that they are doing a 10K at the same time as the half my friend is running so I can run with her for almost half of her run, should not slow her down too much since she is going more than twice the distance, and then cheer her in at the finish line.....and not give up much if any of my time on the bike.

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I don't know what race exactly you're talking about, but usually multi-race events don't start their races at the same time. Ex.: the half-marathon starts at 7 a.m., the 10K at 8 a.m., and the 5K at 9 a.m. or something like that.

You might want to research that if you haven't yet. I think it's unlikely you'll actually run with your friend but the day's schedule might very well allow you to cheer her on at the finish line.

It sounds like you have made your decision but would like to add that I'm running my first HM next week and have been training for it since January 1. It is a huge commitment and I'm ready for it to be over. You would have 4 runs a week and toward the end your long runs will be over 2 hours. The worse part is that you can't take a day off if the kids are sick or if you are sick or go out of town for vacation. My children are grown and I found it very stressful trying to fit the training into an already busy day for weeks on end. You have to make it your priority and with a young family it would be difficult....but not impossible. The training has been rewarding and I'm glad I did it but give it some serious thought. You want it to be a fun challenge.

I'm pretty sure they run together because the start time is 7:30AM for both and the starting line is the same place. It also says the 10K runners will do one loop while the half marathon runners will do a little over 2 loops.

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Originally Posted by drdwin

I'm pretty sure they run together because the start time is 7:30AM for both and the starting line is the same place. It also says the 10K runners will do one loop while the half marathon runners will do a little over 2 loops.

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Sounds like fun!