HALF MARATHON TRAINING TIPS ??

Hello Everyone,

I have just signed up for my first Half Marathon in 20+ years in October  ( I will celebrate my one year surgery anniversary by jogging 13.1 miles)  I have been reading articles on the internet about the best way to train for a half marathon. Also I have read about half of Hal Higdons how to train for a half marathon.  I have been training for one week. I am a very slow jogger about 14 minute miles.  I am jogging 5 days a week and resting on Monday and Friday. Last week I jogged 3 miles on Tues, 4 miles on Weds, 5 miles on Thursday, 6.2 mile on Saturday and 6.0 miles on Sunday.  After trying to find the best training schedule I am confused about the best way to train. I would be interested to hear from all of you of the best training plan for a half marathon. - Thanks so much!

I used Hal Higdons training. Due to some ITBS, I did a 15k one month before the half and didn't run a mile in between. I ran the whole thing around an 11:30 pace. 

Things I learned

• no excuses for missing training except injuries that require rest - not even broken ear phones and/or no music.
• try new routes to keep from getting bored (I love finding areas with lots of walkers/runners for motivation) 
• run once in a while for fun and ignore the GPS/pace. Have fun with cross training too. 
• figure out your own hydration/nutrition needs. There's no one size fit all. I picked a half with lots of course support because I HATE carrying all my water with me. 
• Never buy/use new shoes for a half (yeah...learned the hard way). Invest in a good pair of socks. 
• Make it about the process and not the end result. 
• Never take running for granted - got to my lowest post op weight, ran my 1st half, and 3 months later my back went out and  now (2 back surgeries later) have never been able to run again. I still walk 1/2 marathons because I think it's a fun challenging distance. 

Thanks so much for all of the great tips! I am sorry to hear about your back and surgery.  I know it can be easy to take a lot of things for granted.  - thank you! have a good weekend!

You are running way to often even with me training for a ultra I am not running 5 days a week you need to  be only running 3 days a week. Lets say tue make it an hour run Thursday tempo run and long run on Saturday or Sunday. I have never trained by distance but my time. and only build up slowly on the long runs. Make sure you are doing strength training also and every so often you need recover time. If you need help message me and I will help you

Thanks for taking the time to respond and the great tips. I appreciate it.  I think I will slow down a bit on the jogging. Congrats on the Ultra Marathon - that is totally cool!  Have a good weekend!

I used training on c25k to train for 5k, 10 k , and 1/2 marathon. I just did my 1st Full marathon using Hal Higdon. My advice is find what works for you and stick with it!!  Happy Trails my friend!!

Thanks for pointing out this great web site C25k.  Thanks for taking the time to respond. Congrats on the Full Marathon. That is great. Just wondering does all of the training & running increase your appetite and as a result do you have to increase your calories and carbs. Have a good weekend! - thanks!

You learn to adjust your eating habits.  If you are going out for a 2 hour run than the day before you will eat more at dinner and the morning of your run you should eat more. You learn that carbs are not a bad thing like people want you to think. As I was told think of your body as a car. If you don't put gas in your car it will not run. while if you don't feed your body good carbs it will not run.  Your body will burn it. The trick is to step away and cut back on the carbs when you are not doing those long runs. Your body will burn those calories that you take in. good luck

Thank you!

Congratulations on signing up for the your first Half! That's a big step right there. The half marathon is absolutely my favorite distance. There are several training plans on the internet and, really, the best one is the one that works for you and your schedule. Personally, I do run/walk 5 days a week as well and it works for my training. However, I also have to listen to my body and if I am truly fatigued (not just feeling lazy) then I take an extra rest day even if the schedule says that day should be miles. A few of things that work for me

• My rest days are Sun (or Monday) and Friday
• Weekly miles vary between 3 - 7 miles a day depending on if I'm working on speed, hills or just distance
• Saturday is my long miles day and I don't do 2 longest distances in a row...   if this Saturday is 10 miles then next Saturday I will do 8 and the Saturday after that I will do 12, then back down to 10 etc. 
• carbs are necessary for endurance training. The majority of the week I eat protein forward but Friday and Saturday morning are carb loading times. When I'm training for a full marathon and have 16+ miles to do on a Saturday then I will add carbs to my dinner on Thursday as well. Once I'm done with my miles on Saturday then I'm back to protein forward. 
• Good shoes are essential. Go to an actual running store and get fit for the shoes that work for your feet. Everyone is different and I recommend 2 pairs so that you can alternate them and keep them fresh. 
• Nothing new on race day. If you haven't tried it during training then it doesn't happen on race day. 

Good luck! It's a great accomplishment and such a rush to finish each event.