Half Marathon Training: Week 1

Hey guys! I put in a lot of miles last week (a lot for me anyway). This new training program is really pushing me, but I’m enjoying it so far. (I say after one week. ha!)

Some of the prescribed workouts in the training plan list minutes vs. miles. So, for example, for Wednesday’s workout I was just supposed to run 45-55 minutes at an easy pace. I’ve listed the prescribed workouts first so you can easily adjust the plan to your training level, and then listed what I ended up doing.

Week 1 of Training

Monday’s prescribed workout (PW): 30 minutes, easy + 5 strides during the run
(note: strides just mean you pick up the pace – a gentle sprint for 15-20 seconds)
My workout: 4 miles, 8:00 average pace
+ 30 minutes full body weight training

Tuesday’s PW** – 6×4 minute repeats @ 10K pace with 1:30 recovery jog in between
My workout: 7 miles, 7:54 average pace, 10K pace of 6:55
+ evening yoga @ Village Yoga

Wednesday PW – 45-55 minutes, easy
My workout: 55 minutes, 6 miles, 8:23 average pace

Thursday’s PW** – 3 miles at 10K pace
My workout: 7.75 miles @ 7:52 average pace, goal tempo pace of 6:55 min/mile (but I ended up averaging 7:10)

Friday’s PW – rest or non-impact workout, like yoga
My workout: 60 minute walk with Maizey

Saturday’s PW – 60-70 minutes, minutes, easy
My workout: 7.75 miles, 8 min/mile

Sunday’s PW – 8 miles, easy
My workout: 8 min/mile

**NOTE: Tuesday’s and Thursday’s workouts include 10-20 minutes warm-up running at an easy pace and a 10-20 minute cool down jog. These warm-ups and cool down will make the work portion better and help you up your mileage!

I did Saturday and Sunday’s runs with John so I probably ran a bit faster than I would have alone, but it was ok! I felt good. 8 minute/miles is a super easy pace for him so he was a trooper to hang with me. It was super humid this weekend so we were sweaty messes by the end.

By the way, this is technically week 3 of 12 of the training program, but I’m going to list it as my week 1 since I missed the first two given the timing of my target race. The first two weeks are really just easing you into training so you can start from this as week 1 if you are a regular runner.

I’ll try to post the weekly recaps on Sunday’s going forward so you can use the training plan for the week if you want to. I’ll do these posts instead of my usual workout post that I combine with the Weekender since I’ll go into more detail here and I hate any post to get to lengthy.

And with that, in mind, I’ll stop writing. 🙂

Let me know if any of this doesn’t make sense or you have questions!

How is your training going? Any favorite training programs or specific workouts? I love seeing what others are doing.