My Half-Marathon Training Program

I recently completed my first milestone race, the Rockledge Rumble 15K. I felt I was 100% prepared for the event and completed the distance with ease. After some reflection, I updated my milestone trail races to reduce the amount of time to train for and complete my ultramarathon goal.

My next milestone race, the Cross Timbers Half-Marathon, is scheduled for February 19th, 2011. The Cross Timbers trail is known as the "toughest little trail in Texas" primarily due to its sometimes unrunnable hills and technical areas (rocks, tree roots, etc.). Over the last couple of days I have done a lot of research and thinking about the approach I want to take for this portion of my training. I decided that my training program should meet the following requirements:

1. Incorporate strength training.
2. Incorporate hill work.
3. Longest run to exceed half-marathon distance. 

Hal Higdon

For my 15K race I followed Hal Hidgon's Half Marathon Training Program. I felt the program worked well for me. The program helped me increase my mileage gradually and incorporated enough rest days to allow for proper recovery. So I've decided to once again follow one of Hal's training programs, this time the Novice 1 Marathon Training Program. However, I've made some changes to the program in order to accommodate my specific training needs and requirements:

Strength Training--Hal's program calls for rest days on Monday and Friday. I plan to rest from running on these days, but I will also use them as strength training days. I plan to follow a Beginner Strength and Conditioning program that I started previously, but failed to complete. I hope to have better resolve this time around.

Hill Work--I've replaced the cross-training day in Hal's plan with a hill work day. I need to get better at climbing and descending. And the best way to get better at it is to practice it. I'm not sure yet how I will accomplish this as I don't know of many significant hills in my area. For cross training I plan to ride my bike to and from the trail, about 2 or 2.5 miles each way, depending on the trail head I choose.

Long Runs--I moved the long run day from Saturday to Sunday, my preferred long run day. I am following the first 12 weeks of Hal's plan, which will build the long runs from 6 miles to 16 miles. I picked 16 miles as the longest run because that distance is roughly two laps of the Northshore Trail from MADD to Far Gate and back, which has been another distance goal of mine. By achieving this long run goal I will have 100% confidence when I toe the line at Cross Timbers.

At this point you might be thinking... why is he shooting for 16 miles if he is only training for a half-marathon? Well, the answer is simple... I'm not training for a half-marathon. I am training for my first ultramarathon. Let me explain...

The half-marathon is only a milestone race--a training run along the way to my ultramarathon goal. I want to exceed the milestone race distance during my training so that when I arrive at the starting line of each milestone race I am 100% confident I can go the distance (because I already have gone the distance in my training!). I don't want heroic effort or adrenaline to carry me over the finish line. I want to condition myself so that I finish STRONG in each of my milestone races, just like I finished strong in my first milestone race and like I plan to finish strong in my first ultramarathon race.

With that said, the following outlines my half-marathon training program. See additional notes below.

Click image to enlarge.

Week 0 is a "reverse taper", helping me recover from my recent race.

Week 1 through 11 follow Hal's program, with the changes described above.

Week 17 and 18 also follow the last two weeks of Hal's program, again with the changes outlined above.

As I've learned, I will listen to my body and modify the plan as needed to avoid overtraining.

Questions / comments???