Half Marathon Training Program

Me after the May 2008 half marathon (1 hour and 50 minutes)

Well I am currently training for my third half-marathon. After training all summer long for a multi-day trek in the French-Swiss Alps I took a couple months off of running as my muscles and joints were in desperate need of rest and recovery.

By November I was back running and worked at building my mileage up so I had good base (about 10km long runs and 25km total a week) before starting my training for the half-marathon.

I will be logging my training with respect to mileage progression, speed training, hill training, nutrition, motivation, strength training and whatever other topics emerge. I am sure my husband will contribute, as he is also running a half marathon in May 2010.

My first half marathon did not meet my personal goal, clocking over 2 hours. This was due mainly to a lack of proper training (no hill or speed training) and I was struggling with painful abdominal adhesions and hip bursitis. Thanks to Active Release Techniques (ART) treatment from a great massage therapist and chiropractor, and a lot of patience, I overcame those injuries.
The second year I was thankfully injury free and trained extremely hard and followed a regimented training program. I performed intense hill and speed work in order to reach my target goat. I ended up with a personal best (PB) of 1 hour 50 minutes which I was pretty ecstatic about. This year I am aiming to repeat the same time, but there is always that determination and internal competitiveness in me that wants to strive to do better and obtain a new PB.

My training plan is based on running four days per week, however I usually either add an extra short run in or some cross-training, or just do something active that (skiing, hiking, snowshoeing, sports, walking, biking). I also do a combination of general and sport specific weight training.

Here is the training plan I am following, however you can see my actual half marathon log book by clicking here. There is some variance from the program in terms of days and distances.