Half Marathon training recommendation

[PrincessAndrea'sMom]

Hello!

In 2012, I will be competing in the Princess Half Marathon! I am not new to fitness, but am a complete newbie at running! At the gym, I prefer classes and the elliptical to the treadmill. I just did my first timed treadmill trial yesterday at the gym.

I am looking for a good half marathon training program that I can do at my gym, or around my neighborhood when it gets nicer outside. I have heard Couch to 5k is a good place to start.

Any advise would be appriciated!

 

[jmasgat]

Couch to 5k is a good place to start for a new runner. And there are numerous plans out there that you can look at to fit your running needs--meaning, style (run? run/walk?) time commitement, etc.

Check out Hal Higdon, Jeff Galloway (the official RunDisney guru) for run/walk plans, Marathoning for Mortals. Here's a link to the Galloway programs for Princess.

http://espnwwos.disney.go.com/events/rundisney/run-disney-training-consultant/index?page=Walt-Disney-World-Goofys-Race-Training-Program#pip-2-3

I use "Run Less, Run Faster" plans from FIRST (Runner's World web site has some variation of them, I think) since they are 3 day/week run plans and they have worked well for me. I do run 1 (speedwork) and run 2 (Tempo) indoors on TM and then do run 3 (long run) outdoors.

Hope this helps. Others will chime in. And ask more questions, as you need.

Maura

 

[verticalchaos]

I agree C25K is a great starting point.

I used the run/walk plan in Marathoning for Mortals and loved it. I had only minor IT band twinginess a couple of times through the whole process, and I attribute my lack of injury largely to the common sense of John and Jenny's plan. I've also found them ~ Jenny especially ~ to be more than open to questions via email, twitter or facebook. Jenny even set up an "Ask Coach Jenny" page specifically for questions!

I'll be using their run/walk plan in training for the full as well.

 

[liznboys]

There are a ton of C25K graduates on here, myself included. I recommend it to everyone who wants to start running. Some of whom have now completed the program too.

After I did C25K and wanted to start my half training, I started using a plan, but then ended up doing my own thing based on Hal Higdon, Jeff Galloway and the marathonrookie.com plans. I took everything I had learned about running and made up a plan that works for me.

Good luck!

 

[PrincessAndrea'sMom]

Wow! Thanks for the great info! I just ordered the book and found the phone app. You guys are so great!!!

 

[johde]

Maura gave you the rundown of most of the popular ones around here. I've used "Marathoning for Mortals" twice. The most important thing is finding a program that fits into your life. In the beginner programs the big decisions are: how many weeks is the program, 3 or 4 running days a week, How frequent are the cut back weeks.

 

[elanorasmom]

When I started my C25K, I found out on the boards that there is an itunes download for C25K that is just the voice and you can use a program like Garageband (Mac) or Audacity (Windows) to add your own music. That helped tremendously for me! I can't stand the electronica on some of the other downloads.

Similar to the others - I used Hal Higdon but used the Galloway run/walk method.

Good Luck!!