Look out! Extremely lengthy post below!
When I decided to run a half marathon during Thanksgiving last year I didn’t even own a proper pair of running shoes let alone did I have any idea about what to do for a training plan. At that point I had been casually running 3 miles 3-4 days a week for a little over 2 months, but I wasn’t following a strict regimen. It was more of a whenever I feel like it type of situation. I spent a few days taking serious time to search for the best training plan for me. In the end I decided I really liked what Hal Higdon had to offer. Through many a Runner’s World Forum searches I found that a lot of people were using Hal’s program and had good things to say. He offers programs for a variety of distances (from 5k to ultramarathon). For most distances he has also designed different plans based on different degrees of experience (from novice to expert). And to top it all off his plans seemed very easy for me to understand. A lot of plans I looked at read something like “Tuesday - 2 x 400, 3 miles...” Like I said I didn’t even own proper running shoes, so this kind of jargon was definitely over my head. I just wanted something simple, predictive, and repetitive (in a good way). I finally landed on Hal’s Novice Half Marathon Training Plan. It was 4 days a week with predictable distances and gentle mileage increases. It was something that I could easily blend into my full-time work schedule.
So, the only problem with Hal’s Novice Half Marathon Training Plan? It was 12 weeks long and the half marathon I was planning on running was 25 weeks away. I had two options. I could continue my casual 3 mile runs for the next 13 weeks before starting the program. Or, I could stretch Hal’s plan over 25 weeks and get a jump start on training. Not wanting to dillydally or lose the sudden motivation I recently gained to run the race, I chose option B. There was no reason I couldn’t start right away. In fact, I hoped the longer training period would make me feel more confident come race day, since at that point I was still terrified I wouldn’t be able to do it at all.
The next step was to actually write my 25-week plan. I used my chosen plan as a base, keeping the same basic structure and distances, but I added two different types of variations to extend the plan from 12 to 25 weeks: 1. I repeated some weeks, which allowed the miles to really sink in before increasing the distances. 2. Instead of increasing my long runs 1 mile every week I increased them 0.5 miles every week, allowing me to not only add more weeks, but again, to make me feel more comfortable with the distance before moving to a bigger mile number. Below are Hal’s 12-week plan and the first 12 weeks of my 25-week plan, where both of my strategies are illustrated. Even just looking at the first 4 weeks of each plan (highlighted) you can see the slight alterations.
My personalized plan ended up working out really well for me. By the time the race rolled around not only had I been able to schedule and run several shorter races to get used to the racing vibe (a 5k, 8k, and 10k), I had also been consistently training for 6 months (half a year!) and felt really comfortable as a runner. When it came time to make my marathon training plan it was just coincidence that there was another 25 weeks between the half and the full. I was so used to being in training mode at that point that I had no problems or gripes about getting back into it right away. I did take a week off for vacation right after the half (Puerto Rico!), but I still logged a casual, no stress 20 miles.
I honestly don’t mind always being ‘in training.’ It keeps me focused and active. And it doesn’t mean every single run has to be taken with the utmost seriousness. With 25 weeks instead of 12 or 16 weeks there is room to breathe and relax a little bit. I am definitely a planner. In fact I am an OCD, super organized, crazy person planner. I usually have a general plan for my life made at least a year out if not more. And I know what I’m doing everyday for the next month without having to look at my calendar. With my race schedule tentatively planned out into 2014 it seems as though I’ll always be ‘in training,’ or at least for 48-50 weeks out of the year. I don’t really mind this. Having a plan makes me feel secure. I’m a person who craves structure and organization. If a number is on my training plan it’s almost always the case that I’ll do whatever I need to in order to satisfy it (Sunday being a good example).
My first marathon is 16 weeks from this Sunday. 4 months. Seems like a long time, but it will probably fly by. Having looked at my fair share of marathon training plans, most seem to be between 16 to 18 weeks, some going as high as 20, some as low as 12 (which seems a little short to me). The point is, that with the Philadelphia Marathon a little over 16 weeks away most people have either already started their training or are just about to. As already discussed in this ridiculously long post (sorry!) I’m already ahead of the game. For the marathon version of my 25-weeks I took all the good patterns I picked up from my half training plan and just amped up the mileage. I’ve also started to add more complicated weekly plans, including more speed work, tempo runs, and back-to-backs. Unlike Thanksgiving last year, I now know a lot more about running and feel comfortable adding these in. In addition to revising my half plan I also made sure to consult some actual marathon training plans, so I know to add things like alternating really long with not so long runs on consecutive Sundays.
Alllll of that said, some people are much more relaxed about their planning than I. Take my wonderful fiance Mike for example. He is what I would call a “natural born runner.” He has long, lean, legs and the metabolism of a hummingbird. He ran cross country in high school, but stopped once college started, not really starting again until I got running crazed this past year. On our 4 year anniversary weekend trip to NYC in February he joined me on my 7 mile long run. From then on it started becoming routine every Sunday for him to come with me. After a few months he started adding his own weekday runs too, but he never plotted it out on a chart or bothered with the details. He barely even recorded them after he finished (unlike me, who plots every twist, turn, and step on mapmyrun.com). He started running a few of the shorter races with me, mostly to keep busy (he rather run the race than sit for an hour and wait for me to finish). He casually signed up for the half a month or so before. The same half that I was following a rigorous 6-month plan for. He ran the race and beat me by 10 minutes, having had a third as much training as I. So its not hard to imagine that again, as I am in 6 months of training for the marathon, he has not followed nor probably intends to follow any sort of plan for the same race. Granted he is recovering from his heel spur right now (an injury that may be due to his unplanned, sporadic and varying mileage) so he can’t run at the moment. After he recovers I do hope that he considers at least king of plotting out some mileage goals, but at the very least he will continue to join me on my weekend long runs. And this in itself will serve to minimally prepare him for the race. Thank goodness one of us is a planner!
When I decided to run a half marathon during Thanksgiving last year I didn’t even own a proper pair of running shoes let alone did I have any idea about what to do for a training plan. At that point I had been casually running 3 miles 3-4 days a week for a little over 2 months, but I wasn’t following a strict regimen. It was more of a whenever I feel like it type of situation. I spent a few days taking serious time to search for the best training plan for me. In the end I decided I really liked what Hal Higdon had to offer. Through many a Runner’s World Forum searches I found that a lot of people were using Hal’s program and had good things to say. He offers programs for a variety of distances (from 5k to ultramarathon). For most distances he has also designed different plans based on different degrees of experience (from novice to expert). And to top it all off his plans seemed very easy for me to understand. A lot of plans I looked at read something like “Tuesday - 2 x 400, 3 miles...” Like I said I didn’t even own proper running shoes, so this kind of jargon was definitely over my head. I just wanted something simple, predictive, and repetitive (in a good way). I finally landed on Hal’s Novice Half Marathon Training Plan. It was 4 days a week with predictable distances and gentle mileage increases. It was something that I could easily blend into my full-time work schedule.
So, the only problem with Hal’s Novice Half Marathon Training Plan? It was 12 weeks long and the half marathon I was planning on running was 25 weeks away. I had two options. I could continue my casual 3 mile runs for the next 13 weeks before starting the program. Or, I could stretch Hal’s plan over 25 weeks and get a jump start on training. Not wanting to dillydally or lose the sudden motivation I recently gained to run the race, I chose option B. There was no reason I couldn’t start right away. In fact, I hoped the longer training period would make me feel more confident come race day, since at that point I was still terrified I wouldn’t be able to do it at all.
The next step was to actually write my 25-week plan. I used my chosen plan as a base, keeping the same basic structure and distances, but I added two different types of variations to extend the plan from 12 to 25 weeks: 1. I repeated some weeks, which allowed the miles to really sink in before increasing the distances. 2. Instead of increasing my long runs 1 mile every week I increased them 0.5 miles every week, allowing me to not only add more weeks, but again, to make me feel more comfortable with the distance before moving to a bigger mile number. Below are Hal’s 12-week plan and the first 12 weeks of my 25-week plan, where both of my strategies are illustrated. Even just looking at the first 4 weeks of each plan (highlighted) you can see the slight alterations.
My personalized plan ended up working out really well for me. By the time the race rolled around not only had I been able to schedule and run several shorter races to get used to the racing vibe (a 5k, 8k, and 10k), I had also been consistently training for 6 months (half a year!) and felt really comfortable as a runner. When it came time to make my marathon training plan it was just coincidence that there was another 25 weeks between the half and the full. I was so used to being in training mode at that point that I had no problems or gripes about getting back into it right away. I did take a week off for vacation right after the half (Puerto Rico!), but I still logged a casual, no stress 20 miles.
I honestly don’t mind always being ‘in training.’ It keeps me focused and active. And it doesn’t mean every single run has to be taken with the utmost seriousness. With 25 weeks instead of 12 or 16 weeks there is room to breathe and relax a little bit. I am definitely a planner. In fact I am an OCD, super organized, crazy person planner. I usually have a general plan for my life made at least a year out if not more. And I know what I’m doing everyday for the next month without having to look at my calendar. With my race schedule tentatively planned out into 2014 it seems as though I’ll always be ‘in training,’ or at least for 48-50 weeks out of the year. I don’t really mind this. Having a plan makes me feel secure. I’m a person who craves structure and organization. If a number is on my training plan it’s almost always the case that I’ll do whatever I need to in order to satisfy it (Sunday being a good example).
My first marathon is 16 weeks from this Sunday. 4 months. Seems like a long time, but it will probably fly by. Having looked at my fair share of marathon training plans, most seem to be between 16 to 18 weeks, some going as high as 20, some as low as 12 (which seems a little short to me). The point is, that with the Philadelphia Marathon a little over 16 weeks away most people have either already started their training or are just about to. As already discussed in this ridiculously long post (sorry!) I’m already ahead of the game. For the marathon version of my 25-weeks I took all the good patterns I picked up from my half training plan and just amped up the mileage. I’ve also started to add more complicated weekly plans, including more speed work, tempo runs, and back-to-backs. Unlike Thanksgiving last year, I now know a lot more about running and feel comfortable adding these in. In addition to revising my half plan I also made sure to consult some actual marathon training plans, so I know to add things like alternating really long with not so long runs on consecutive Sundays.
Alllll of that said, some people are much more relaxed about their planning than I. Take my wonderful fiance Mike for example. He is what I would call a “natural born runner.” He has long, lean, legs and the metabolism of a hummingbird. He ran cross country in high school, but stopped once college started, not really starting again until I got running crazed this past year. On our 4 year anniversary weekend trip to NYC in February he joined me on my 7 mile long run. From then on it started becoming routine every Sunday for him to come with me. After a few months he started adding his own weekday runs too, but he never plotted it out on a chart or bothered with the details. He barely even recorded them after he finished (unlike me, who plots every twist, turn, and step on mapmyrun.com). He started running a few of the shorter races with me, mostly to keep busy (he rather run the race than sit for an hour and wait for me to finish). He casually signed up for the half a month or so before. The same half that I was following a rigorous 6-month plan for. He ran the race and beat me by 10 minutes, having had a third as much training as I. So its not hard to imagine that again, as I am in 6 months of training for the marathon, he has not followed nor probably intends to follow any sort of plan for the same race. Granted he is recovering from his heel spur right now (an injury that may be due to his unplanned, sporadic and varying mileage) so he can’t run at the moment. After he recovers I do hope that he considers at least king of plotting out some mileage goals, but at the very least he will continue to join me on my weekend long runs. And this in itself will serve to minimally prepare him for the race. Thank goodness one of us is a planner!
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