What do you think of my half-marathon training schedule?

Question

mon. - 3 miles doing HIIT (triceps/hips/abs)
tues - 3 easy miles
wed - rest or crosstrain
thurs - run 3 miles, bike 7.5 miles (abs, leg extensions)
fri - rest
sat - run 6-9 miles
sun - rest
(strength training varies week to week)

started training june....half-marathon is dec. 2nd...
my knees aren't the best...i think that's the only thing holding me back from running faster and longer...need to overcome that pain and just do it... what do you think? schedule good enough? I would like to be able to run 8 min miles the whole time...any suggestions to improve? Thx

Answer 1

You definitely need to increase your distance. Pick a day for your distance run, and add 10% to it each week, cutting back a bit on the 3d week. In the middle of the week, have your run about 1/2 of what the long run is. You should run a minimum of 11 miles about 2-3 weeks before your race. If you can get it up to 13,14,15--that would be even better.

As for your knees, stay off concrete! If you can get to some trails, do as much training as you can on the trails. If not, try running on tree lawns or the berm of the road as you can, or on asphalt, which is softer than concrete. Work on strengthening your quads and hams to give your knees support. Also, if you can (and if you are a minor, check with your parents/guardians)chondroitin/glucosomine and also fish oil can help.

Answer 2

I have done a few half marathons and I am in a training for a mini at the beginning of May. If you are in swimming now you are already keeping your body in shape as far as the cross training for the workout would go. I would wait to start your mini training until your season ends. You can search online for different half- marathon schedules. I use one that is on the indy mini marathon. They offer a few different ones. They are each about 18 weeks of training but they offer a run/walk, run, and an advance schedule. I hope this helps and best of luck. They are fun but I have been a runner most of my life.

Answer 3

You need to increase your mileage to finish a half at 8 minutes per mile. If you knees are a problem with running longer distance you could do deep water running or biking and if you have access use an elliptical. You did not say what speed you are doing in your training. I would guess you are running at the 8 minute pace or faster. Every other week you could do a 10K race to stress yourself and see how your work is going. 10K is less than half your race distance so you should be able to run it faster than your projected race pace. In the months of Oct, and Nov. you will need to be averaging 6 to 8 miles and do some long runs or your body is not going to want to run 13 miles.

Answer 4

I disagree with everyone else.

I think your training is fine for now. If your race is in December and it is only August, you really don't need to train that hard to risk further injury. There is nothing worse than having an injury during training and then have to cancel your race.

For now, your training is fine. I would recommend more elliptical and bike training. I love elliptical machine because it is much more gentle on the knees as well as give you a reasonably similar cardio workout. In addition, I use elliptical to train for hill, which is hard for me to do. For the days with 3 miles, I would add at least a couple of miles of elliptical at least.

As for the speed and finish time, it will depend on two factors - your speed of running and your endurance. A lot of novice runners make the mistake of running a faster pace at the beginning and thereby burning out near the end. If you look at the results of various races, you will find many runners who perform much better in the first half and then have much worse time for the second half. The better runners are the one with similar time for first and second half. That is what you need to aim for. When you train, you want to train at a faster pace and get used to that. If you want to run 8 minutes miles, you need to get used to at least 7.5 minutes miles during training. You need to account for fatigue, hills, crowds, etc, so get used to faster pace so you can hold back during the race.

Probably in October, then you need to start doing a few longer runs, up to 10-11 miles. I am never an advocate to run the full length during training. If I want to run 26.2 miles for my training, I might just as well sign up for a marathon and get the credit for having finish yet another marathon. It is the same for half marathon. If you can do 10-11, you can finish. Worse case scenerio - you finish 10 and got hurt, you can at least walk the last 3 miles to finish line. On the other hand, if you get hurt while training, you won't even make it to the starting line. If you knee if bad, don't push too hard during training.

If you hurt, go see a doctor. Get it checked out, maybe get some physical therapy, and maybe get some medication. You need to save that knee. If you get hurt permanently, you will never run again.

Answer 5

Hi,
My had a similar problem - my left knee gave out only 10 weeks into a marathon training programme. I switched to doing long sessions on the cross-trainer four days a week and doing one long run (20 miles) every weekend. I managed to do 3 hours 13 minutes for the marathon, despite having run only once a week for the previous three months.
It worked for me... it might work for you... I hope it does.
J

Answer 6

Get to a sports medicine doctor and get those knees evaluated. If you don't do that, get new shoes. If you still don't get better, SEE THE DOCTOR.

Chances are, you can get rapid relief, but you need to do it early so you don't go thru more pain than necessary. At worst, you could be doing permanent damage. Get to the doc...

Good Luck

Answer 7

it looks nice, but you should probly start increasing your distance.