Half Marathon Training Plan

June 19, 2011 By Leanne Vogel September 13, 2017

We have just 2 months until my half marathon in Edmonton. Everything I’ve done in the past year has been leading up to this moment. My patella recovery, trying out spin for the first time, and enrolling in a 3 month masters swim class, were all scary moments. But none have made me as anxious as the realization that I have 2 months to whip myself into shape for this. After a couple of hours of freaking out, I realized that perhaps my sense of fear is just because I was doubting the path I’d planned to get there. So, I sat down this week and reviewed my training plan. Seems logical, right? When there’s a plan, there’s an end goal and repaired confidence that you can do whatever you put your mind to!

The training plan

Evening runs

I ran in the evening for the first time on Wednesday and loved it! So adding evening runs to my new training plan was essential. Running in the evening will allow me to run outside 3 days a week [one of my I am Fit goals] and give me ample time to stretch afterward, something that I rarely do and definitely need to!

Running pace

I am currently running at a 06:17 min/km pace [10:06 min/mil] Pace goal for my race is 06:00 min/km pace [09:39 min/mil] Tuesdays & Thursdays will be my speed days where I’ll work on improving my pace, and Sundays will be my long runs where I’ll maintain an even pace, with a sole goal of putting kilometers under my belt.

Increasing the kms

I’ve increased my long run [Sunday] by a couple of kilometers each week. I’ve left a little wiggle room here and there, so if I need to backtrack on a couple of Sundays, I can. You’ll see the kilometers I plan to run each day at the bottom of the cell, and the total kilometers of each week summed up on the right side of each row.

Total running time per week

Many half and full marathon training plans advise 5 days a week of running. I know if I do that, it will be overkill and I’ll end up hurting myself. So instead, I’ll be replacing what should be a running day with a 1 hour spin class.

Strength training

I’ll be continuing with 3 days of strength training throughout the week. You can view my full plan in a pdf here. In addition, I’d like to add some stabilization workouts on Wednesdays to help eliminate my knee pain. The best stabilization workout I’ve found is the kettle bell workout from Women’s Health. You can check out the video, and print the full workout here. The full workout takes 20 minutes and feels amazing!

Visualization

When I was recovering from my injury, I used visualization to get my body prepared to run again. Visualization can mentally prepare us for what’s ahead, calm our nerves, and if done enough, help us to develop muscle memory, or the technique we want to use. It just takes a little bit of planning and I feel better already! Here’s to the next 2 months of busting my bud to accomplish a goal I’ve held on to for 310 days, despite many setbacks. Some quote that have and will continue to keep me going:

Never give up, for that is just the place and time that the tide will turn. – Harriet Beecher Stowe When you feel like giving up, remember why you held on for so long in the first place. – Anonymous

Have a wonderful Sunday :)

This entry was tagged: race preparation, training