Training for a Half Marathon

This year Cam & I decided to commit to the Cairns 70.3 Half Ironman. We got a little caught up in the excitement last year and decided it would be great to do it. We knew with our work load we didn’t have the time to train to do the individual event but thought doing the half as a team was doable!

Well…….it sounded good at the time although as the year has gone on and our workload and time to actually train ourselves has diminished, it’s becoming quite a challenge. I’m barely getting in a run or two and Cam is out training on his Mountain Bike. We’re quite the funny team and oh so slow right now.

Anyway I haven’t given up!!! It’s 13 weeks out and I just forced out a 12km run in the scorching sun. It was slow but geez did it feel good to get it done. What I’ve realised is that sometimes you have to forget about times. Instead do it for the sense of achievement rather than to beat a time. I know that I won’t beat my previous half marathon time. Geez, I’ll be lucky just to run it all, ha,ha. Although I do know that If I can commit to this and get it done with everything else that’s happening in my life right now I’ll be SUPER proud of myself.

So I’m scaling the running plan back and keeping it simple and achievable. I’m ignoring my snail pace for now and instead focusing on slowly increasing my distance each week.

My Half Marathon Training Plan

My Goal is:

3-4 runs a week

Ideal Plan –

1-2 Fast or Hill Runs (Sprints, Hitt, 1km efforts etc)
1 x Easy 40-50 minute
1 x Long Run with duration increasing each week

So that’s the IDEAL plan.

Fallback Plan

1-2 Easy Runs 40-50 minutes
1 x Long Run

So if you have your own little goal or challenge that you are looking at tackling I suggest making a commitment! Then go about having a REALISTIC plan in place that will help you achieve it.

As far as training for an event it is important to HAVE A PLAN and make sure you commit to regular training sessions. The reason WHY? Is that it makes the event SO MUCH MORE ENJOYABLE. I remember when I trained for my first Half Marathon and Marathon I didn’t miss a training session. I was so committed that every week I made sure I did what I needed. Looking back I actually think I may have been terrified of what would happen if I’d miss one so I just did them all, and it paid off! The reason why we need to commit to the training is we need to prepare your body for what you’re undertaking. Going out and just running 21km doesn’t happen naturally for most of us and we need our body used to running for a couple of hours. For me increasing my distance each week and getting my body used to running for longer will be my priority. If I find I get more time to train early in they day and have heaps of energy I’ll focus on some more speed work but right now it’s going to be SLOW & STEADY!

Keep an eye on the blog and you tube Chanel for regular updates on how Cam and I are going.

Have a great week.

Hilds

Hilds Loch Ness Marathon Scotland