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Some people have asked me for advice for half marathon training…and while I appreciate it, there are so many better resources than lil old me.

However, instead of offering flat out advice (I really don’t feel qualified), what I can do for you is explain and compare my training to past half marathons. I’ll let you know what worked and what didn’t and then let you all decide what might be best for you. If you’ve got a half marathon coming up within the next few weeks, I highly recommend ignoring this post. Or saving it for later. Or reading it and immediately forgetting about it. Don’t mess with your training too close to your race!

First things first, I’m going to be comparing my three half marathons (see, I’m no seasoned half-marathoner!)

HM1 = 2008 Cook Forest Half Marathon (2:08:59) First half, and first race ever.
HM2 = 2009 Hollidaysburg Area YMCA Half Marathon (DNF) Stress fracture, holla!
HM3 = 2010 IKEA Montour Trail Half Marathon (1:59:27) PR and goal-reaching (sub 2-hour)

Miles

I’m terrible at keeping running logs. There was a time between 2008 and 2009 where I was slightly obsessive about my running and kept one, but I don’t think it was too healthy. I’ve since noticed a healthier mind set and body and funny! I don’t anally track miles anymore. So, I can’t really tell you specific miles logged while training for any of these races.

However, I can tell you that each week I logged between 20 and 30 miles. That’s my average mileage almost ALL the time. It gets higher as I increase my long run miles, but because I’ve been somewhat injury-prone, I stick to the 10% increase rule all the time during training.

My long run for HM1 was 10.5 miles, which was actually a very leisurely stroll through Oakland, Shadyside and Point Breeze. I was running with Shannon and we even stopped at her sister’s house to visit, chat with the kids, get some water, and then continued on our merry way.

My long run for HM2 was about 9.5 miles of rolling hills throughout my development. It was awful. I kept pushing myself and pushing and pushing. My entire body hurt and I wasn’t satisfied with the run, so I made myself get out there and run another 5 or 6 miles the next day. Obviously, that run stunk too.

My long run for HM3 was 11 miles and it too was awful. The unique thing about HM3 is that I was following a 4 week plan instead of the normal 9 (ish) week plan. However, in spite of this disappointing run, I finished it and moved on. I gave myself time to recover and then ran my next scheduled run like I normally would have.

Meals

The HM1 diet really doesn’t leave any imprint on my memory. Well, except for one thing: I stopped eating meat a week before the race. Not that I really ate meat much before then, but I just made it official. Other than that, I ate normal food. Not quite as quality as I do now, but definitely not unhealthy. I do remember carbo loading on pasta the night before. I would never do that now!

HM2 was, of course, a disaster. I was just too busy with work, tutoring, running and studying Greek and GRE stuff that I had no time or energy to devote to food. I ate the same thing every day—and it wasn’t enough to sustain me. I was a freakin’ stick last fall (I’ve put on quite a few pounds, thank goodness), although I wasn’t trying to lose weight. I just wasn’t being healthy. My energy was elsewhere (or nowhere, depending on how you look at it). And because I was eating the same thing every day, I wasn’t getting ALL of the nutrients that I needed. So, with training EXTRA hard, and eating so much less, it’s no WONDER I got a stress fracture. I was utterly emptied of all that I needed.

HM3 was all nut butters and burritos. Oh, and OF COURSE chia seeds. This was the half that I was most aware of nutrition. While I recognize my need for carbs, I have learned that healthy fats provide so much more energy. For the most part carbs are rocket fuel; they give you a burst of energy but then your blood sugar drops leaving wishing you wouldn’t have had any at all. I focused myself on carbs that are low on the glycemic index, meaning that it takes them longer to be broken down by the body. Things like oats and whole grains are excellent examples. However, fats are the BEST at this. They give your body stores and stores of long lasting energy. In my training I did a lot more morning runs, which meant that I was running on an empty stomach. This gave my body a chance to learn how to tap into the fat stores instead of relying on the quick-burning carbs.

Mentality

For HM1 I had no idea what I was getting in to, but for some funny reason, it wasn’t “training” to me. It was easy to get all of my runs in. I was always concerned that I wasn’t running enough, but that’s because I didn’t know what to expect. I just loosely followed a plan from Runner’s World and that was that. Shannon and I were running it together for pure pleasure. We got up to the starting line, and the girl behind us asked us what our goals were. Goals? Like, you mean, finishing? I want to live, that is all. She said “I want to run it under 2 hours”, and that seemed very fast and I wished her luck, cuz in all honesty people, I had no idea how fast (or slow) I ran. All that I knew was that I loved to run and that the course was beautiful and I was with a friend.

HM2 was bad news bears. I had an “all or nothing” mentality and while it may work for some people, it does not work for me. I am not naturally a Type A kinda gal, so if I ever morph into one, something, somewhere inside of my soul, is terrible wrong. This half marathon taught me that. Nothing was good enough during training…and I had wayyy too much on my plate. Let’s recap (because I still am shocked that I did all of this at once): full time job (for which I traveled), part time Latin tutor, part time student, studying for GRE, training for half marathon, oh, yea, and I happened to have that important relationship that needed attention, too… you know…”marriage”. I just did too much and didn’t ever consider that of course my training would be slow. That made me angry, and I would just get out and run again…and a mentality like that led to a tired body and a tired mind. I woke up every morning completely and utterly exhausted. And a week or two before the race, every joint in my body hurt, and I didn’t slow down at all.

For HM1 and HM2 I was nervous and always worried about getting enough mileage in. For HM3 I really didn’t stress about it. This race was a complete  “just for the heck of it” kind of race, and if I ran my goal, great! I made sure that my long runs were done early enough that I didn’t have to change my normal-life schedule for them and didn’t have excuses. However, in a 4-week plan, you don’t really have time for excuses and that was my motivation. I wanted to run it under 2 hours (I knew that first mile being downhill made it possible for me), and a week before the race, casually asked Ashley to pace me. Man, am I glad she did.

Oh, and I think you can actually see my nerves before HM2, especially when compared to the pic before HM3.

The difference in the endings is also apparent:

4-week Plan Conclusion

Well, the 4 week plan had its pros and cons. I really liked that it wasn’t a long and drawn out process. It seems that the longer I train for something, the more it overtakes my life. It was kind of quick and painless yet the short amount of time to train kept me more motivated. If I have months to get my runs in, I would push it off if conditions were less than perfect.

The downside is that I didn’t do enough running. This may sound weird, but what I mean is that one of the purposes of training is to get used to motion of running…you know, just get used to the repetition and the motion and create muscle memory. I could tell that I didn’t have that and I think that that is one reason why my legs crapped out on me with two miles left.

However, I still felt fresh. I didn’t feel burnt out and I didn’t feel like “I just want this to be over!” Usually when I’m training I need just one good long run to feel confident in the imminent race. I had one the week before on an 8 miler with Ashley in Ohiopyle.

I finished HM1 feeling the best of all, but I am the proudest of HM3 and not even because of the time. It’s because I have overcome injuries, and gained a lot of speed since the marathon and because I know my body so well now. HM3 makes me excited about the potential I have as a runner. I’m looking forward to what lies ahead!

So, in conclusion, I think that the 4 week plan was great, laidback approach to a laidback race. If I was training to break records or something, I don’t know how it would have worked. But, the terrain was easy and I had the ability to train on the same trail. Also, I was already running about 15-20 miles a week (which is low for me). I would NOT suggest this plan if you’re not used to running a lot. But if you’re not investing a lot into the race and don’t want to give weeks and weeks of your life to training, this could be a good option for you!

Have you had surprising success with a certain plan? Has anyone else tried a 4-week training plan? What are your opinions of it?

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