This is a great thread. I found it the other day and pretty much read it start to finish, there are some very accomplished runners in here.
I've just gotten into running, which is kind of odd to type because I ran 8 seasons of track in High School. When I was drunk about a month or two ago, and my friend told me that he was running a half marathon, I told him I'd train for it and do it with him. When I sobered up the next day, I figured that I'd at least give it a try, but that I didn't think there's any way I'd be able to actually pull it off. I was a hurdler in HS, so 55M and 110M was pretty much the extent of my race and until about a month ago I don't think I've ever run more than two miles straight without walking or stopping just because my work outs were always springs and hills rather than going out for a long run.
So I'm planning on running the Utica Half Marathon on May 18th, and have been following the Hal Higdon Novice program. I've made far faster progress than I expected going from struggling to two miles at a 9:15 pace to running four miles this past saturday in just under 34:00, which is to date the farthest I've ever run straight. My plan is to continue with the program, but in about two and a half weeks I'll be running the Scottish 10K in Central Park which I'm aiming for 50-55 minutes for.
I'm having two sort of problems at this point and figured that with some of the experience here, I'd get some pointers. I'm finding that my muscular endurance is far ahead of my aerobic endurance, and that after a 4 mile run my legs are pretty much fine, and still have a lot left in them while my lungs and getting enough oxygen is what's tiring me out. I did some tempo runs at the end of my run today and had no problem with speed at the end for a few minutes then resting a few minutes then more speed. The other thing is that so far pretty much all my running has been indoor in the treadmill, but as the weather is getting nicer and now that I'm into runs 5+ miles I'm going to want to start running outside. After about 2 - 2.5 miles my mouth gets real dry, and I know that once you're hitting runs of more than about 45 minutes hydration becomes key. I saw the gum suggestion, and I'll have to try that for the gym on shorter runs, but I was thinking that I might buy a belt or something for water for longer runs.