Race Training

BeccaKay96

In a little over a week I will be doing my first 10k, Would a half marathon by next summer be a reasonable goal??
Any training suggestions?

ephiemarie

A half would absolutely be a reasonable goal! I ran my first mile (literally ever, in my entire life) in February 2014 and ran my first half marathon distance in December 2014. There are many training plans to follow, but I used a Hal Higdon plan and found it totally reasonable. Good luck at your race! Huge accomplishment!

mwyvr

For sure! As long as you are healthy, not having any injuries especially recurring over use injuries you should have no problem given the amount of time you have.

Like @ephiemarie I scaled up from 0K to 21K in less than a year.

decotterell

I think it is more than doable. I love running, now. For some reason, I never did when I was in the Army. I guess because I had to. I try to increase my endurance by making sure that I steadily increase my speed the entire time I am running. In addition, I have regularly increased the time I run since starting again in September last year. I never run a certain distance, just a certain amount of time. I can go over an hour now, steadily increasing my speed and not get winded. Anyhow, I am no expert, I run because it makes me feel good. There are others that I'm sure can offer better advice.

bluebug2013

Very reasonable goal in fact a lot of people do a 10K and 6 months later have done a half marathon. Though the time scale depends on how healthy you are.

There are lots of programs out there e.g. runners world, bupa, but the general aim is to do one long run a week at steady pace.

Some programs do increasing time while others do increasing distance. It's actually easier to follow an increasing in time program as you naturally increase distance, and if you are newish to running will get faster even if running at a steady pace which also means an increase in distance.

Then 3-5 shorter runs a week including a couple of runs that involve hill training or speed work like intervals or fartlek. If you live in a hilly part of the world all your runs will include hills so you just need to do some speed week. While it hurts it does make a big difference to your speed and endurance.

Just ensure you get plenty of sleep. Don't run if you feel very tired or really under the weather. It's better to miss runs then as it can lead to illness or injury. Also do your training on a variety of surfaces. If possible do your long runs off road e.g. trails, grass as you won't ache as much.

If you have any niggles get them sorted out asap don't leave them as you can find out that you won't be able to run to for months due the niggle progressing into an injury.

I've run on and off for years only being off due to injury and illness. (I always end up back on here due to illness as running forces me to eat properly. ) I wouldn't advise you to run further than a half marathon until you are comfortable doing that distance for a year as your body needs to get use to it. Once you have done one you can actually "race" up to 6 half marathons a year.

BeccaKay96

Thanks everyone! Always love the advice