Half Marathon - 1st time ever - tips :)

vanilakitten

Hi everyone,

I have been on MFP since the past 2 years and have been good and bad about logging/exercising, but from leading a horrible lifestyle, I've pushed myself to exercise and get better.

Last month, I signed up for my first ever half marathon. The longest I've ever run (once) is 10k, but I wanted to push myself and get fit. For any of you who have run a half marathon or even regular runners, please help me out with any tips! I'm a rookie and any advice will be super appreciated. How many times a week should I run? How much? I have 4 full months before the actual date, and really want to challenge myself and enjoy this experience. Any websites you recommend? Any online running schedules?

Thank you so much in advance!!

ES110791

I'm a newbie too! I've heard about 4 times a week is good, depending on your fitness level, because you don't want to burn out!

http://www.marathonguru.com.au/training/images/stories/HalfMarathonbeg.pdf

I've been following this training plan, which is working out great for me, although lots of people would recomend you do weights or cross trainer or something as well, so you should look into that I guess. I've been doing that on the Wednesday

thegreatcanook

This is what was recommended to me and it worked great! It will have you running 4 days a week and will get you where you need to be. http://www.halhigdon.com/training/51131/Half-Marathon-Novice-1-Training-Program

Hope it helps. Feel free to add me!

brianpperkins

There are a ton of beginner training plans for a half marathon ... most in the 12-16 week length. There's Galloway, Higdon, Runner's World has them, most of the running apps have them. Find one that starts near your current ability and go with it. Try to stick with it closely but don't get overly stressed if you miss a run during the train up. The goal is a progressive building of your distance so the final race day is doable.

Check local running stores and clubs to see if they have training runs for this event as well. Sometimes a group setting helps. It's also worth checking if the race has pace groups.

saanaismom

Congrats! Running a half is a great accomplishment. I did my first last year and will be doing my second in October. I ran 3 days a week at the beginning of my training then 4 days away for a few weeks up to my training - I was also doing other exercising so I had to make my run training work for the rest of my life. I would encourage you to do a weekly long slow run, where your focus is getting the milage under your belt, as well as hills training, a tempo run (6-9 km at a pace just shy of your race pace) and also speed work. The mistake I made was starting to train to early - I started in May, for an October race, by September I was so done with running. This year I've swung the opposite and started training too late. In any case, I would echo the other tips about finding a training schedule and sticking to it, but not getting cray if you miss a run. Once your long runs get longer than an hour, it's good to practice taking in nutrients during your run - you don't want to do anything new on race day so if you don't train with fuel it wouldn't be wise to start using gels or whatever during your 1st 1/2. I would also recommend getting some anti chaffing products, once I started training over the 12km mark my sports bras would sometimes chaff. Vaseline around the toes helps with protecting from blisters, and if you can, invest in some technical running socks for the long runs.

vanilakitten

Thanks so much guys! I'm going to look at these plans and start

Really appreciate the support!

GillianMcK

Proper shoes and socks are a must and as is a good bra (everything else can be cheap as chips, but don't skimp on these items).

I downloaded an app called Half Marathon Trainer by Fit Kit, 12 week program that will actually tell you when to walk, when to run, starts off dead easy and finishes with 2 x 1hr run non-stop with a 5 min walk break in between.
I also downloaded and app call 26.2 and it gives you the number of miles to run, you put your race date in and it tells you what date you need to start the 12 week plan, varies it with short(er) easy runs, a hard run and a long run, I found this beneficial as I don't run very fast and I'm on forest trails a lot that slow me down even more, so I was concerned with getting the mileage in, the 26.2 app doesn't look at time, it only looks at the number of miles, so first week has a 3 mile run in it, doesn't matter if that takes you 24min or 1hr 24min (although if it's taking 1hr 24min you may need to check and see how long you have to complete the run)!