✦Fitness · 16 recordsHalf marathon training

Half marathon training goes wrong by building too fast, not too slow. This assumes you can already run for about half an hour, grows the long run a little each week, keeps the other runs easy, and tests race-day food and kit in training so nothing on the day is new.

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Goal

Finish the half marathon uninjured Month 3

Built slowly. A time goal can come with the second one.

Get ready to train Day 10

Race entered, shoes sorted, the shape of the week decided.

  • Enter a race about twelve weeks awayDo firstDay 2
  • Get running shoes fitted and start wearing them inDo firstDay 6
  • Choose the three days I run each weekDay 8

Build the long run Month 3

A mile or so more each week, with an easier week every fourth.

  • Run 6 miles as the long runWeek 3
  • Run 9 miles as the long runDo firstWeek 7
  • Test race-day breakfast and gels on a long runDo firstWeek 8
  • Longest run: 10 to 12 milesDo firstMonth 2
  • Lay out and try the full race kitMonth 3

Routines

  • Long runweekly
  • Two easy runsweekly
  • Stretch and mobilitydaily
✦ It puts something in the calendar

Dates you will not have to remember

Race day

Month 308:00180 min
✦ It comes with a note

Slower than feels right

Most beginner injuries come from building too fast. The long run grows by about a mile a week, every fourth week is easier, and the other runs are slow enough to talk through.

Nothing new on race day. Breakfast, gels, shoes and kit are all tested on long runs first.

✦ Questions

Half marathon training, answered.

About twelve weeks if you can already run for thirty minutes without stopping, which is what this plan assumes. From no running at all, a couch to 5K block first is the safer start and adds roughly two months.
Around ten to twelve miles (16 to 19 km), reached two or three weeks before the race. Many beginner plans stop short of the full distance on purpose: race-day adrenaline covers the last stretch, and the extra miles in training mostly add injury risk.
Most of them slow enough to hold a conversation. Running every session hard is the most common beginner mistake, which is why the plan has one long run and two easy runs rather than three efforts.
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