I'm Behind on my Half Marathon Training

If you absolutely have to run your half in May, you have to be very attuned to what your body is telling you. Ramping up your mileage too quick can too often lead to bad results. Years ago when I was training for a marathon I got some good advice. Don't ramp up mileage by more than 10% a week. Just like dieting, this is not a one-size-fits-all answer. You may be able to push longer, and sooner. Unfortunately, sometimes you don't know that you are doing too much until you are facing a pretty serious injury.

This applies to a single run as well. If your longest run was 6 miles, don't expect to go out and run 10 the next week on your long day, without the potential for danger. Going from 30 miles per week to 40 can overload your body as well. If you are running the half marathon as a prelude to longer or more intense training in the future, I would be very careful about doing too much too soon. You may put yourself off the trail for much longer than you would like.

Of course, if this is a one time thing to prove you CAN run the half, give it a shot! Don't be afraid to step into a professionals office to have any pains checked up on as you experience them. Better safe than sorry. This is by no means a professional suggestion, just some guy that has a running background sharing what seemed to work for him

You have 4 weeks left to train and one week to taper. If you are only up to 4 miles right now I think it is a pretty big stretch to get to 13 by race day unless you have been there before and are simply rebuilding.

If this is the first time at that distance I think you are setting yourself up for a painful race.

Ok, you and I have a run the same date, 5/5/13, only mine is a 10-miler. I'm on Week 6 of the Hal Higden Novice training program, and just ran 5 miles Saturday, with pretty much no problem (even in the wind).

I can't tell your age because it's not shown in your profile, but I'm 51, and I'm pretty darned sure if I don't stick pretty much rigidly with the program, I'm not making that 10-miler straight running with no walking.

That being said, in my younger years, when I ran regularly around 25-30 miles/week, I'd have had no problem missing training, drinking on weekends, and skipping meals, and still making that run. Having aged, my body is a little more temperamental and I have to be really careful about injuries.

I also have no problem with 5ks, 4 miles, and now even 5 miles. But say I were to miss this Saturday's 6 miles, I may lose confidence.

Good luck to you.

Listen to your body. I pushed through to run my 1st half marathon and many races (including training for a marathon) and now I'm on the injured list. So if run/walk is what has to be, so be it. You will accomplish more distance and won't be so tired if you run/walk. But with patience and perseverance you can run the whole thing if you put your mind to it.

Best of luck to you.

be mentally strong

Get in as much training as you can, but be prepared to walk intervals of the race if you feel you need to.

With your first half, your goal should be to finish... then you can work on speed for the next one. And if you can finish the race and still have energy for the rest of the day, then you've done great!

I strained a calf muscle while I was training for my first half marathon and ended up not doing anything for two weeks and then having to start over with my training. By race day, the farthest I had ever run was 7 miles. But I did what I could for the race, walked more than I wanted, but I crossed the finish line. And honestly, at that point the time didn't matter. I was just thrilled to be able to say I compled a half marathon.