Last week I signed up for the Big Sur 10 Miler on April 29th. By some random twist of events Ben agreed to do the race with me?!
Well, it’s not completely random as I sold him on the epic road trip up the coast to get to Big Sur like the one we took in July.
One of the questions I get all the time is, “Does your husband run?”
The simple answer is, No.
When I met Ben I was already a runner. I had done a few half marathons and ran 5 days out of the week. I continued to run while we were dating and after we got married he was used to me sneaking out of bed to pound out a few miles before breakfast. Truthfully, I’ve never really even wanted him to run with me since it’s time for my head movies 
But last New Year’s Ben decided he wanted to run a 5K. He did the Couch to 5K program for a few weeks but didn’t completely stick to it. The night before I did the Redland’s Half Marathon he decided to pull the trigger and run his first 5K!
Since last April he hasn’t been running so we’re starting from scratch and he has about 11 weeks to go from “Couch to 10 Miles”. That is no joke. 
I have hired myself as his Running Coach and we’ll be using the Hal Higdon Novice 10 Mile Training Plan as a rough guide to get him to 10 miles.
I’m switching around the days a bit (like I always do) because he’s going to a MMA gym this month and might have to tweak things if his knees start to bug him (old football injury).
This morning we took a 3 mile walk because I so graciously gave him my cold that prevents you from breathing and makes your face feel swollen full of mucus. 
So there is Ben’s little training plan! Now I guess I should put one together for myself…
Thanks for posting this! I used to run quite a bit in college, but it’s been a while and I’ve mostly been doing yoga/gym stuff since, so I don’t consider myself a runner anymore. My husband convinced me to sign up for the Army 10 mile run in DC this October and I’m running with a team of super-fit Army people, so I’m pretty nervous! I’ve been looking online for a plan for a while now and think this is the perfect one for me. I’m really glad I came across your blog! Thank you!!
I am going to bookmark this webpage
Congrats to Ben! I did the Big Sur marathon relay about a million years ago, it was absolutely beautiful. You two are going to have a blast.
10 miles?!?! Impressive! Can he get my husband to run 10 miles too???!!
Good luck Ben!
Hope you two finally kick that cold to the curb.
I just wrote about my ten mile race coming in September. Terrified is a good word. I’m staring with c25k then moving into that same Hal Higdon plan.
I don’t feel stop strapped for time anymore.
I have yet to take a road trip up to Big Sur. Thank you for the idea. I wish the best to you and Ben. Should be fun.
I have my husband now weight lifting with me. Last night, he was trying to keep up with me (manly thing to do). And now he is in pain. “No pain, no gain!” as they say in my daughter’s TaeKwonDo class. 😉
Couch to 10 miles! Wow! No messing around I guess.
My hubs used to run in HS when we were just friends. I’d sometimes run a few miles with him and his football buddies who needed to keep in shape all winter. I somehow hid my struggle to keep up very well.
Since then, he’s been through 2 knee surgeries and still has no meniscus. Damn football.
Go Ben! My husband does nothing active. He went out to a 6 hour challenge race with me recently and walked over 22 miles. We are signed up for a 24 hour race in the end of May. Should interesting… Fully aware not the smartest thing to do but we are going for it.
That’s awesome! After nearly 5 years together, my boyfriend just announced that he’d like to start running with me once I get my walking cast off, and I’m thrilled! I’ve always wanted a built-in running buddy in my bf 😛 We tried once when we first started dating, but he said I was too speedy for him. Since I haven’t run in 4 months now, I’ll be essentially starting from scratch so he thinks he’ll be able to keep up! We both might be using that couch to 10-mile plan.
You can put one together for me while you’re at it 😉
Kudos to you for getting him going! I have tried and failed to get my husband running… but for some reason he still signs up for the same 10k every March and attempts to run it having done no training whatsoever.
Boys.
If I ever tried to get my boyfriend to run a race with me, I’m pretty confident he would dump me. 😛 Glad to see Ben is a little more open to the idea! Good luck!
Well, isn’t Hal just a hoot? His plan assumes I can already run 2 miles at a time. Think I’ll stick with week 3 of couch to 5K first.
repeats to self “I’m lapping everyone on the couch!”
You are lapping everyone on the couch!! Be proud of that 🙂
Try and find some hills to train on if you can, the course is rolling the whole way. And just as an fyi, lots of people walk the entire thing and the 10.6 is super casual.
Thanks Ida! We’re definitely just trying to make it a fun run so knowing people walk makes me less stressed 🙂
I haven’t ever stuck with a desire to run long enough to stick to a program, but I like the idea that they actually work for some people!
Yay Ben! You can do it!
That’s awesome! My husband and I tried to run together one time, about 4 years ago, and it was so tramatic we’ve never tried since (an ipod was broken in the process, rip). We were on a 2 miles run which he runs at about a 6 minute mile / I run about an 8 minute mile. We weren’t in a good area and he didn’t want to leave me behind (even though I assured him me and my fists were fine) he could not understand why I couldn’t just “run faster” like I was able and chosing not to. I also don’t like to be interrupted when running so someone doing circles around me yelling how slow I am, wasn’t an ideal time (did I mention minus that I have the best husband ?)! So Ben’s lucky he has someone patient and willing to work with him – I read before you’d do training with him, then go do your own ….. lucky guy! 🙂
The Big Sur 10 miler was one of my first races and it was absolutely gorgeous! I would love to go back and run the marathon one day
FUN 🙂
I got my hubs to agree to run the Wine and Dine Half marathon Relay at WDW this fall….he runs maybe 1X a month right now, so I figure by November it’ll be like the super extended couch to 5 mile thing. 😉
Too cute. You guys are going have so much fun. Except my husband and I can never keep a decent pace together. One of us is always feeling good and sprinting ahead. Lol.
That’s awesome. What made him interested in starting to run again? My husband is on again, off again runner also. I wish he would run a little bit just to be in shape…so I’m just curious if I should just wait and not be a nag and maybe he’ll come around on his own. Or maybe running just isn’t for him!