Half Marathon Training Plan

Hey, hey! Happy Tuesday everyone! In case you didn’t see, check out my 11 Things survey to learn WAY more about me than you ever wanted to know.

Yesterday was a VERY long day for me. First of all, I didn’t sleep. I literally woke up at least every hour and barely slept at all. I dragged myself out of bed at 5am so I would be at the gym when it opened at 5:30… Yay. Haha, I wouldn’t get home to have dinner until 7, and at that point, I’d be hitting the gym at 8:30-9pm, so I knew I needed to get my workout in early.

But despite the early hour, I still didn’t get my whole workout done before I had to leave! Yesterday’s workout included a 3 mile run and then Workout B from Stage 2 of the New Rules of Lifting for Women.

I’m actually starting to warm up to the book right now. Since I better understand the moves, I’ve added to my weights so it’s more challenging and I’ve definitely felt sore! I also figured out the most efficient way to get the workouts done, without having to run back and forth around different areas of my gym to do free vs. machine weights.

By the time I got home, showered and dressed, I had 20 minutes to eat breakfast and get myself out the door. Good thing I made some overnight oats! (sorry about the awful photo… I was in a hurry!)

These were DELICIOUS. I used the same Dough Boy oat recipe that I used a week ago, but this time I also added a bunch of cinnamon, and then rather than eating them cold, I chopped up half a banana, mixed it in with some water to thin it out, and then microwaved for 2 minutes.

The bananas tasted so good, and I really love the flavor my Sunwarrior Vanilla Protein Powder gives to the oats!

So I realize that I keep mentioning my half marathon training plan, but I haven’t really given you all any kind of details about my plan and how I’m going about preparing for my half.

The race I’ve signed up for is the Chi-Town Half on April 1st. If anyone in the area is racing, let me know, I’d love to say hi!

For my 10K in September, I was just getting back into running, so I used Hal Higdon’s 10K training plan. However, I didn’t follow his strength and cross training suggestions, but just went with any type of cross training that I was enjoying at the time and taking 1 rest day a week. I didn’t choose to use his half training plan because I felt like I fell in-between Novice 2 and Intermediate, as well as the fact that at the time I started (and still now but working up to it), I get injured much more easily running back to back days, and he has three back to back days, then two back to back days.

For my 10 mile run in November, I followed a training plan that I set up through Runners World on their free, SmartCoach program. I put in my time from the 10K and it automatically set up a training plan based on my time and the mileage I run per week. I really liked this plan, especially since it incorporated speed training as well as didn’t have as many back to back days.

Here’s the first month that they gave me (this is actually missing the first week because I had to re-start the plan online a week in)

Thus, I ended up going with Runners World again for my half-marathon, however I tweaked it a bit to fit my needs.

The SmartCoach plan started out having me run 15 miles a week but when I began I was already at about 2o miles a week, so I added a couple miles here and there. Now, however, I will have to continue to do so throughout my training to keep increasing my mileage per week by 10%. One of my goals is to increase my weekly mileage because I want to be able to 8 mile runs regularly. I LOVE long runs much more than shorter or speed training runs, but I want to get to that point without injuring myself! Hence the 10% increase per week rule.

Finally, one of my January goals was to run 11 miles because it would be a PDR for me. However, my plan had me hitting 11 miles on March 10th… Not cool with me. I changed my next three long runs to be 9, 10, and then 11 miles so this weekend is the big 1-1 run! So excited!

So here is my adjusted marathon training plan for the next four weeks:

Since I’m getting up to 11 miles so early in my training, my goal is going to be upping my weekly mileage as well as working on speed. I also added in a cutback week next week because I feel like I’m going to need it with all the mileage I’ve been adding in.

What kinds of training plans have you used? Any good ones you suggest?

Also, if you have any thoughts on what I’m doing, please weigh in!

What is your favorite overnight oat recipe? If you haven’t tried them, what is your favorite quick breakfast recipe?