Training Plan

I've been training for my half-marathon in November for just about a week now and I must say, training is going better than expected. Of course, I’ve only had to run a mile-and-a-half for the four days I’ve had runs scheduled, but I’m still surprised I’ve managed to run that distance after being such a lazy bum at running for the past few years.

I thought I would take time today to detail out my training schedule for the next 4 months so you can see what it looks like and give me advice. Like I mentioned before, I'm using Hal Higdon's 5K and half-marathon plan for the next 19 weeks and the schedule isn't as overwhelming as I thought it would be. The longest run I do is 10 miles and I have until November to work up to that.

Coming up with the training plan was incredibly hard and time-consuming. July and most of August was pretty easy and then I had to factor in school and my internship. I redid August-November probably 3-4 times because I don't want to set myself up to fail. I want to do everything in my power to insure I'll be able to train for this successfully and not work myself too hard.

So here's my plan, complete with rest days and cross-training. I'm not as concerned as fitting in cross-training as I am with my runs. I am 110% committed to getting in the 3-4 runs a week, but can also use those cross-training days as a rest day if need be. I really don't have a problem with taking rest days and listening to my body. That's not a big issue for me. The big issue is deciding if I really need a rest day, or if I'm just being lazy.

I have the plan written on a printed-out calendar because I just need a visual representation of everything.





  


 
Some notes:

• NMTZ = No More Trouble Zones, a workout DVD by Jillian Michaels. (AKA: HELL!)
• I followed Hal Higdon’s plan with a few switches, including making sure I had my long runs on Saturday and Sunday. I know I should give myself a shorter run on Saturday and my longest on Sunday, but it just didn’t work with my schedule. Also, I took off the last week of 5K training because I only have 19 weeks until my half, not 20 as I had previously thought.
• Once I school starts back up on August 23rd, my schedule gets a little crazy. (But not as crazy as Spring semester! Yay!) Basically, I tried to schedule my workouts according to what my day at school looked like. And I didn’t want to overwhelm myself.
• Bike/yoga/elliptical relates to cross-training, which Higdon recommends.
• When I start the half training, I’ll be doing 4 runs every other week. On Higdon’s schedule, he gives the option of doing a run or cross-training once a week so I just decided to rotate weeks when I would do one or the other.
• My mom, whose training for a marathon, is running this half-marathon with me. She checked her training schedule to find out she has to run 21 miles on November 21st. I find this extremely hilarious!

I’d love any feedback you guys can give me on the schedule. Did I make it too easy, too hard, just right? Do you have any tips for my long runs? Am I totally crazy for doing this?!