Half Marathon Training Update
/Hello everyone!
Today starts a “heat wave” here in Kentucky of some nice 60 degree weather this weekend and I couldn’t be more excited! It seems like we have had a very long stretch of rain, snow and cold. Winter is my absolute favorite season, but even I’ll be happier to see some warmer temps in the next few days!
A few months ago I mentioned that I wanted to make 2016 THEY year of running and run ALL the races. I realized I haven’t updated about my progress with training in a while, so I thought we might do that today.
Last year when I ran the Run the Bluegrass Half, I trained using the three day running approach as outlined on the Runners World website. This did work very well for me, schedule wise, but I did feel a bit undertrained the day of the race. This could have also been in part because there were a few weeks leading up to the race that I was unable to train as much as the planned recommended.
Anyhow, because of my experience, I decided this year I would combine a couple of different programs to get the results I want. I started the year off training with Hal Higdon’s Novice I Training Plan. This plan included 4 days of running a week, with additional days of cross training incorporated. In the beginning, I felt like I really didn’t have a very good running foundation built up just yet, so I wanted to have extra days and extra mileage early on to build a good running base.
My plan consisted of running with the Novice I Training Plan up until Week 6. At Week 6, I was up to 6 miles on the long-run. I felt like this gave me a good foundation for running longer mileage. At that point, I decided I would switch back to the running plan from last year, the three day a week plan from Runner’s World. Running three days a week just fits my schedule better.
In addition to running three days a week, I have also decided to add a day of Yoga on the days after my long run, as well as a day of cross training. These additional days will give my body some much needed attention in other areas so that I do not experience the overtraining and imbalance in my muscles and body.
I’m in Week 7 of training and holding strong so far! There’s definitely been some very chilly runs and even some snowy ones. There has been a couple of runs I have skipped here and there, mainly because I know I have several extra weeks in between the end of the current training plan and the date of the Run the Bluegrass. With whatever weeks I have to spare, I intend on repeating the plan from that point. For example, if I’m on Week 10 and I still have 4 weeks left before the race, then I’ll start back at Week 7 again. More training for the win!
So that’s it for now! So far, so good and I’m really happy with how my training is coming along so far. I’ll let you know in a few weeks again how it’s going.
What are you training for right now?
What training plans do you recommend?
