10 Week Half Marathon Training Plan [ Printable ]

This 10 Week Half Marathon Training Plan was originally posted August 28, 2015 and it’s been so popular, I thought I would bring it to the front of the line…especially now that it’s running season. (And of course by bringing it to the front, my share counts were reset. Oops.)

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I’m not sure if I told you guys yet, but I signed up for my third half marathon wayyy back before I even ran my second half marathon. I was quite optimistic I would want to run another one this year.

And as races usually do…it snuck up on me so I have a liiittle less time than usual. I’m feeling pretty confident though, now that I have my handy dandy sticky note calendar training plan all figured out!

10 Week Half Marathon Training Plan

I have less than 10 weeks for my half marathon training this time around. I generally like 12 weeks for a half marathon training plan (because that’s what the Hal Higdon training plans show…and I trust Hal Higdon!), but I improvised. I always tweak the plans anyways to better fit me and my schedule.

This time around, I’m doing my training schedule on the calendar with sticky notes. I took one night, sat on the floor with some markers, colorful sticky notes and Harry Potter in the background to map out the perfect training schedule. (Perfect of course in a perfect world…right?) It was way too much fun and Dave made fun of me for being super nerdy, but I don’t care. Also to be fair, he was watching Harry Potter with me..ha!

I was able to create stickies for long runs, training runs, yoga, rest days, strength training and cross-training. Because I know by now that training for a race involves more than just running to prevent injury.

Basically each day of the week is for a certain type of training. I liked the yoga class I took on Sunday, so I planned Sundays for yoga. I know I have Tuesdays off from the café, so I planned Tuesdays for Rest. And so on.

It won’t work out every week though, because that’s life. Thus the stickies! I can move them around when something comes up in the schedule or if I’m feeling particularly sore (or particularly good). It’s kind of magical.

>>Here’s a link to a Google Doc of my 10 Week Half Marathon Training so you can print it out, save it and/or change things.<<

Here’s a link to the Hal Higdon training plan I modified.

10 Week Half Marathon Training Plan Tips:

Disclaimer: I’m not a race training expert; my only credentials is my NASM cpt and having finished 2 half marathons myself.

Runs:

All of my running that I do is run-walking.

I don’t have a specific formula for the amount of time right now since I’m just getting back into it, but my goal is to walk at least one minute per mile. At least.

Why?

I don’t want to get injured. I also feel like when I give myself that little walking break (which again, is at least 1 minute) I run a little faster when I am running, so it evens out. Even if I’m not…I really just want to do this for the safety of my body. I’m not an elite athlete, so I don’t need to make a certain mile time, nor do I have the egotistical need to be running the entire time (which has taken awhile to get over).

The runs that I do during the week should be a little closer to “race pace” (or what I want my race time to be), but really it all depends on how I’m feeling that day. (Hal Higdon even says that your heart rate should be about 65-75% of your maximum pulse rate during training runs.)

Long runs:

I take long runs slow and steady.

[ like slow enough to stop for the occasional selfie. 😉 ]

Slow slow slow. I want to make it through the whole thing even if I’m walking 75% of the time. Yup, even if I’m walking most of the time. Remember, walking is okay! I don’t want to be stressed out for my long runs because I a. won’t feel awesome while I’m running or b. might push it off and then it doesn’t happen.

[Tweet “Don’t forget–it’s okay to walk! #runchat #imasemihealthnut”]

Strength:

I only have one strength training session per week, but most would recommend having two. I decided that with my type of job, I am doing some heavy lifting (and tons of walking), so with all of that and the training AND the yoga (yoga is a form of strength training even though there are no weights!), I would stick with once per week.

Cross:

This means cross training or another way to get in some aerobic activity such as biking, elliptical, stairs, etc. My goal is to do a lot of cross training on a bike, but that first requires I obtain a helmet.

Rest:

Resting is just as important as the workouts and running. When we rest, our muscles are given a chance to rebuild so that we are stronger for the next workout. This also means we need to try to get enough sleep on most nights so our bodies have a chance to recover.

[Tweet “Rest days are just as important as run days when training for a race! #runchat #imasemihealthnut”]

Fall back weeks:

Our bodies need rest (see above). These fall back weeks are designed to give me a little room to rest without just sitting on the couch. The week leading up to the race is a fall back week and I think it’s absolutely essential so that you have plenty of energy on race day. You don’t want to show up to the starting line to run 13.1 miles when your body is already sore and tired!!

Intervals:

These days I will be focusing on short bursts of speed for 1-2 minutes at a time. This helps your body get used to running a little faster and will hopefully increase speed over time. (It’s also a great workout!) I left it open to myself to decide each time whether I wanted to do this running or cross training.

[Tweet “Totally doable 10 week half marathon training plan! #runchat #imasemihealthnut”]

And that’s about it!

I’ve been slowly getting back into running over the past month and I’m feeling pretty good about this…we will see how it goes! (PS follow me on snapchat: SEMIHEALTHNUT to see random training run + cute fluffy cat pics!)

You might also like:

Running for Newbies Series — some awesome experienced guest posters helped me out with these!

Race Training Posts — see how some of my past training experiences went

Tell me…

Any questions? Like I said, I’m not an expert, but I will try to answer any questions you might have.

Any tips or advice for me? I’d love to hear from other half marathoners!!

PS I would LOVE IT if you could pin one (or two!) of these images to share the knowledge with your friends!

This 10 Week Half Marathon Training Plan was originally posted August 28, 2015 and it’s been so popular, I thought I would bring it to the front of the line.