How long should you wait after a half marathon to run another?

Question

I'm running my first half marathon in about two months and I wanted to do another one that is a week later... and the next would be two weeks after the second. Would I survive? or would I be better off waiting on it?

Answer 1

Congrats on running your first half!

If you push the half hard...it will take a week to recover if you are in good shape. So yes you could run and probably do ok. Chances are you won't do as well as the first, but you can absolutely finish. Will you survive??? Hell yes! You will be amazed at what your body can do if you eat and train right!

Get a massage or focus on stretching AND RUN between the two halves. You don't want to do speed work, but do try to do active recovery.

Good luck!

Answer 2

It depends on your training plan, but generally speaking, it would be better to wait. Since you are doing your first, you don't know how your body is going to feel after the race. I just did my first half a couple months ago, and I was exhausted after the race. I haven't done any runs longer than 5 miles since the half. The guideline I've read is to give yourself one recovery day for every mile you race. So, that's 13 recovery days after a half.

However, if you are running a lot of miles in your training program without too much recovery time, you might be able to do all the races. If you are running the full 13 or more for your long run and are able to run at least 10 miles for your long run the next week, you should be fine to do the next half.

So, as long as you train with pretty high mileage and plan ahead, you can probably do it. But, as a general rule, it's not recommended, especially for the first race.

Answer 3

It depends on your health. I would start running a lot now and see how you do if you can handle a lot of running then I would say that you would survive. Get a lot of rest in between each marathon.