Completed my first half marathon-now what?

jeepinshawn

I completed my first road race and it was a half marathon, in 2hrs 4mins. I have been following hal higdons novice 1 plan. It has been about 2 weeks and I have continued running, basically an extension of his plan. The last week of his plan had me doing 5miles, 3miles or cross train,5 miles, rest, 60mins of cross train, 10miles, stretch/strength train.

Now I'm doing 6 miles, 3miles and some weight training, 6 miles, active rest day, 60mins of cross training, 10miles, strength train.

I have a 10K coming up in 2 weeks that I am running for funnzies, and an 18k in late august. I want to keep running but also ad some core work/muscle development. I really dropped the ball on weight training over the last 4 months or so...My question though is how should I go about improving on my distance running? Should i be adding miles to all my runs? Just the long run? Or simply maintain?

lcyama

i've only run 4 halfs so i'm no expert, but... between training cycles, i do easy runs, about 16-18 miles per week, with a long run of 6-8 miles, just to maintain running fitness. for a new HM training cycle (12 weeks), i start with a long run of 8 miles, and gradually build back up to a long run of 13-14mi and increase miles per week. i also increase the pace on my speed runs, which i do once a week. i plug the results of my latest HM into runners world smartcoach to determine paces. when i've stuck to the training plan i have PR'd.

juliet3455

@jeepinshawn I am just coming back from an injury but as a rule I keep myself at a HM ready status all the time by continually cycling through the last 2-4 weeks of a HM Training plan in my general running. ie wk 4,3,2,1,3,2,4,3,2,etc this way I am always HM ready and if I get offered up a spot because some one dropped out or some one points out an interesting event I can load and go at a moments notice.
I have entered events where it was basically free due to last minute deals and the swag bag goodies/shirt/shorts etc were more valuable then the event cost. I have also subbed in for team events when some one else dropped out or injured themselves. One of my running friends covered my spot last week at a team triathlon because of my little injury. So I stood at the sidelines and cheered with some friends while carbo loading with Barley Pops.

djscavone

when you say improving do you mean longer distance or same distance but done unless time? For me I go with running as often as possible (daily if I can) and I added some distance. Instead of 3 miles every day I do 5 or 6. I do not do race day pace but I do what is comfortable. It keeps me loose and keeps my cardio in shape. I don't know if I can physically get any faster on race day and not kill myself! I am comfortable with a HM in under 2 hours.