Half Marathon Training
I’m into my third week of training towards the Coatesville Classic Half Marathon and so far it’s going well, in fact the hardest thing so far has been not running for longer or more often than is programmed, because it’s kind of becoming a habit!
BUT, the people who write these programs obviously know FAR MORE than I do, so I’ll be a good girl and follow the programming for the duration, I figure that’s how I get to the start line in the first place – by not over training and injuring myself!
The main reason I selected a training program by Hal Higdon was that he said;
“If you can handle a 4 mile (6.44km) run at the end of Week 1, I’ll get you to the finish line of a half marathon at the end of week 12.”
It was also the only schedule I could find where I only “had” to run three days per week (four if I wanted too) and where the mileage wasn’t too exorbatant. In fact I’ve come to realise that this program is very low on mileage (in the scheme of things) and as such I’m training to complete a half marathon as opposed to competing in one – but consider that’s the only goal I have I guess that this program is perfect!
I won’t run any further than my most recent longest run (of 10k) until week 7 when my long run is 11k but I’m covering more mileage over the course of the week than I had been doing previously as my “short runs” increase in distance as the weeks go on, whereas when I was doing my own thing my short runs remained static.
I will say it’s kind of nice to just blindly follow a schedule and not have to think too hard, heck I don’t even plan out my routes I just run till my Garmin tells me I’ve reached my planned distance – which at times isn’t helpful when you’re left wondering how to get back!
On that note, if you see me dressed in running gear looking a tad confused, stop and pick me up .. 😉
Till next time
