Fitness Friday: Half Marathon Training Plan

One of my "Fresh Start" goals for the new year is to eat more veggies, and I shared a yummy salad recipe last week. More delicious salads and creative veggie recipes to come (cauliflower soup was actually a winner!), but today is Fitness Friday! The other part of my "body" goal for the Mind/Body/Spirit Fresh Start is training for the Country Music Half Marathon in April.

When I ran this half marathon in 2011, I followed Hal Higdon's Half Marathon Training Program for novices to a T. The plan suited me well as I completed the half marathon 4 minutes under my goal time. However, the last three miles were torture. Since I only trained up to 10 miles, that last push to the finish was very difficult, mentally and physically.

This time, I intend to train to 13 miles, so come race day I have the confidence that I can do it. I also have planned a training schedule that is longer, allowing leeway for vacation and busy work weeks.

I am running this half marathon with four other girls in Atlanta, so I am actually looking forward to starting training since it's a good excuse to hang out with everyone! Being the goal and achievement-oriented person that I am, I designed a training plan for us to follow. It is so motivating for me to cross the days that I train off of the calendar and watch myself get closer and closer to the goal.

Below is the training schedule that I put together. You'll notice that it is very similar to Hal Higdon's Novice 1 plan, but with personalized tweaks. (As a note, I am not a professional trainer, I am just sharing my plan in case it inspires you to train to for a half marathon too!)

I planned on starting training this week, but it has been raining almost non-stop for the past four days, so I've relied on workout DVDs instead. That leaves this weekend for catching up on my runs since it's supposed to be sunny at last!