Half Marathon Training: Action Plan!!!

Well, the time has come!!!

On day 365 of my year challenge I plan to run my first half marathon! That’s only 222 days away, or 32 weeks!!! How exciting is that?!

So yesterday I said I would come up with my training action plan that night. Isn’t it interesting how if you set a date/time to accomplish something you’re so much more likely to do it? Well, I did it!

As it turns out, my half marathon is exactly 8 months away. Or, two 16 week periods. Which also just happens to be the number of weeks Runkeeper has both 10km and half marathon training plans for! So, last night I picked a 10km training plan. It’s a 16 week plan to get me running that distance in 65 minutes. Now, the only ten k I’ve run, I ran it in 84 min. But keep in mind I was also 5 months and 1 week pregnant! If I take this training plan seriously, I can do it!!!

It has me running four days a week, Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays. Those days are pretty set in stone. The runs are a mix of easy runs, runs with strides(sprints), steady runs, slow/fast and tempo runs. Now, I don’t currently have a double stroller, and the jogging stroller I do have doesn’t have an infant sling which means I can only ever run with C right now, or neither kid. I’m going to look into getting an infant carrier for this particular jogging stroller, because it will be easier to leave C with someone watching him than someone watching baby A.

On days that I can’t get someone to watch the kiddos, or get myself to a treadmill, I plan to cycle the plan but double it. So if it says to run 3.2km, I’ll ride 6.4; if the plan calls for sprints I’ll just do the same riding and do the workout twice. To make sure I take this training plan seriously, I have found an official ten km race on June 21st in Banff AND my amazing friend K has agreed to run it with me!!!

After finishing that race I have exactly enough time to start the next 16 week training plan to get me running a half marathon; the goal is simply to finish, so the training will focus on hitting that distance rather than working on my speed.

Now, my main fitness love is weight lifting. But because my goal is a run, I’ve decided that that’s just what I have to focus on. So, I plan to attempt to get two weight lifting workouts into my week. One arms and chest, one legs and back. But if I’m too tired or can’t make the time in not gonna beat myself up about it.

So that’s it! That’s my plan, both short term and long term and I can already feel the excitement just pulsing 🙂