A Week at a Glance !
WHAT DOES MARATHON TRAINING LOOK LIKE ??
I get a lot of questions regarding how a week of mileage looks and how to balance everything you need to do to stay healthy. This has been a HUGE learning curve for me the past 12 months , I still don't have it all figured out, but I think that's what keeps things fresh and fun, is your always learning.
FULL MARATHON TRAINING
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| A glance at my notes from past weeks ! |
Monday - 8 miles (easy comfortable pace)
Tuesday - 8 miles (in the winter inside) Usually Track Warm Up and Cool Down - 5-6 miles on the treadmill doing some sort of a hill or speed workout (ie. treadmill at 4% incline .. Rounds of 200s, 400s, 1/2 mile or mile repeats)
Wednesday - A mix of different workouts, swimming, spinning, an easy few miles, but a lot of time, it was a REST day.
Thursday - Similar to Tuesday's workout . Speed/ Tempo/ Progression .. 8 miles
Friday - 3-4 miles or just a 45 minute lift (TRX group class with other runners!)
Saturday - long run! These distances varied depending on where in the training process I was , so anywhere from 10-20 miles.
Sunday - 3-5 easy miles, a walk , a light lift or a REST day
Monday - REPEAT !
This averaged to be 40-50 miles a week and each week was different !
HALF MARATHON TRAINING
The half marathon is a very different task, depending on one's goals and purpose. Last year at this time, I was prepping for my first half marathon in years. I wanted to run a good time, but I also was only putting in easy miles, I didn't vary my workouts or the speeds I ran, I wasn't on a good strength training plan and I was doing the minimum amount of miles. This time around, my goals are different, I have my eye set on a big Personal Best time and an NYC marathon qualifying time, so with that said, the training is quite a bit more intense.
Here is what a week looks like currently !
Monday - A.M. Exos Lift in the morning (this includes 10-12 minutes of intense Tabata type cardio and 3 rounds of 3 different block circuits.
P.M. Track Miles ( speed day) or miles (usually around 7-8 miles )
Tuesday - 4-5 recovery miles if track day the night before or 6-8 miles
Wednesday - 6-8 miles
Thursday - Tempo Run / Hills (Faster Miles within the Workout (8 miles)
Friday - Exos Lift / 3-4 easy miles or REST
Saturday - Between 8 - 15/16 miles depending on the week
Sunday - REST
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| Last Weeks Miles |
If theres anything I have learned, it's keep the EASY days EASY, so your body is ready for the HARD days ! AND... you can't play catch up! If a workout or run doesn't go the best or you just miss a day because you feel you need the rest, move on and pick right back up on what you need to do the next day !
Stay Consistent !
xo
Thanks for the look into your training, Ann! I haven't ran many half marathons and, but for the few that I did, I noticed it's a totally different ball game - like you mentioned. Your training looks great and you're definitely putting in the work! I'm still trying to figure out how to balance life with training as well. Maybe it's a lifelong learning curve :)
ReplyDeleteWelcome to the Weekly Wrap! My hats off to you for training while working as a teacher and being a Mom of two young ones. My kids were much older when I started running. I'm sure it's not always easy but you are definitely making it work! I love keeping up with my mileage on a paper calendar, although I need to be as detailed as you. Hope to see you again here next week. Thanks for linking!
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