But here I am anyway, signed up and ready to run what will most likely be the hottest race I've ever run on September 18.
When I first started running races, I used Hal Higdon's training schedules from his website. If you run races and you've never heard of Hal, you need to catch up (har har, get it?). He is one of the premier names in distance running, having run over 100 marathons and contributed articles to Runner's World magazine since their second issue in 1966! He has training schedules for running your FIRST 5k all the way to placing at Boston. I also just discovered he has a training schedule for the Dopey Challenge in Disney World, which I will definitely be checking out.
Anyway, I absolutely still use Hal's schedules, but because I work so much cross-training into my plan, I modify them a bit. If you're interested in doing the same, here is what I do!
1. Know your body
I know myself and my body enough to know things like how many days a week I can handle running, how many weeks I need to train, what kinds of running workouts I need to do based on my goals, etc. I have found that for myself, it's more important for me to focus on distance and endurance, not speed. When I combine both shorter and longer comfortably paced runs with cross-training such as weightlifting, I have consistently seen my race speed increase and my finish times decrease. Sure I could add in some speed work and probably decrease my finish time even more, but I have found that I do not enjoy speed work, so why do it if I personally am still getting results?These are things you might not know if you've never run a race, or never run the particular distance that you are aiming for. That's ok! I'm still going to show you how you can alter a running schedule to include a bit more cross-training, if that's your goal.
2. Choose a training schedule
Here is the training schedule for Intermediate I for a Half Marathon, which is where I'm going to start. The Intermediate I schedule focuses on distance and endurance, where the Intermediate II schedule focuses on speed. You want to note the basics from this schedule: how many weeks it is, how the long runs progress (starting with 4 m and ending with 12 m right before the half, tapering back every few weeks) and how the weekday runs progress (gradually getting longer before tapering the last two weeks before the run). These are some of the things I'm going to think about when I build my own plan.
3. Figure out how much time you need to train
The first thing I'm going to do is cut down this schedule from 12 weeks to 8. When I trained for my marathon, I ran a half after 8 weeks and I improved my time by 8 minutes, so I know it's possible for me. If this is the first time you are racing this particular distance and if it is the longest distance you've ever raced, I would suggest keeping the number of weeks suggested by the Hal Higdon training plan. His plans are usually anywhere from 12-20 weeks. I also decide that I am going to start my long runs at 6 miles. When I'm running for "fun" (i.e. running but not training for anything), I'll occasionally do 5 miles relatively easily. Six mile runs are where I would start to categorize a "long" run for myself, so that's where I'll start training. I'll keep the mid week runs a little lower in milage, anywhere from 3-5 miles.4. Figure out when you want to run
The next thing I'm going to do is cut the days of running per week from 5 to 3. Five days of running, for me, is too much, and only gives me one day of cross-training. I'm also going to make sure that I'm not running two days in a row. Again, that's what works for me. Making these changes also allows me to be more flexible with my schedule. I can move my running days around based on whether I'll be at the beach on the weekend, or if the weather is particularly horrible. I would say three days a week MINIMUM if you're training for a race. I've done two days a week before, but that was when I was trying to keep an injury at bay. I was able to keep my fitness level, but I did not improve at all during that time.5. Start to create your new schedule
After I consider all these things, my new schedule looks like this:
My long runs are on Saturdays and every third week I reduce my miles to give my body a little break. You can do your long run ANY day of the week, but try to keep it relatively consistent. You should have 5-7 days in between your long runs to recover. My weekday miles slowly increase, and the week of the half I cut back again. This new schedule now gives me one rest day and three days to cross-train.
