Looking back on half marathon training

I found it helpful, after my 10K, to look back at my training plan to evaluate what did and did not work well during the process. I’m looking back now at my half  marathon training and the race experience itself so that I can make notes for future reference for my next half marathon. Had I mentioned that yet? I signed up for the half marathon in Des Moines in the fall to see how I can do in a less crowded, less humid and hopefully non-broken toed half marathon!

The training plan I used to get ready for the Princess Half Marathon was essentially the Hal Higdon novice plan. Within that plan, he offered the flexibility to stretch the plan out with lighter weeks between the increases in mileage (similar to the Galloway plan), which I did opt to do, and long runs up to 10 miles. I ultimately ended up going up to 11 miles as I’d mis-measured my weeks
and ended up with an extra week of training. With the Higdon plan, the long runs on the weekends steadily increase in mileage as do the weekday runs, ultimately coming up to 5 miles on weekday runs.

Pluses:

• I felt very prepared to travel 13.1 miles after finishing this plan. I wasn’t concerned that I would not be able to complete 13 miles on race day having gone to only 11 miles in training. I think the longer weekday runs definitelyhelp in that respect, in building a strong cardiovascular base. From a motivation perspective, it was also huge for me to know that regardless of how fast I traveled, if I finished the race I was getting a distance personal record by finishing the half marathon. Every step after 11 miles, I celebrated that I was going further than I’d ever gone before. When my legs were feeling tired, it helped keep my spirits buoyed by reminding myself how much I’d already won at that point.
• The drop backs every other week were helpful for my personal schedule, in that it can be hard to get in long runs when I’m on call. It also helped to work around travel and other days when run time got crunched.
• My only injuries during this training cycle were due to general clumsiness, not anything directly run-related, which is a testament to the wisdom of a slowly increasing plan.
• This plan didn’t call for any speed work or other specialized runs, which was helpful for a true novice. It was intimidating enough every time I had a step up in mileage – knowing that I just had to cover miles was enough. I think I would have been too intimidated to stick to the plan if I was worrying about how fast I was running in addition to how far I was running.
• The Higdon plan called for a one week taper, but I chose to do two weeks and I’m glad for that choice. I’m the kind of person who is more likely to push too hard, so I don’t want to risk over-doing it so close to the race.
• Practicing my fueling and hydration before the race was so helpful. I didn’t worry on the course about whether I should have water or Powerade or how often I should take a Gu because I’d practiced all of that on my long runs in the few weeks before the race.

Minuses: I confess these are all my failures/issues, not the training plan issues.

• I did not do a great job with strength training, despite the numerous times I set that goal here and the research I did that told me how truly important it was! This was specified in the training plan but I tended to focus on the runs, not the other boxes in the training plan. If I truly want to meet a bigger goal with the Des Moines half marathon, I’m going to need to work on that more rigorously.
• By the end of the training cycle, I was burnt out from being on a training plan. That’s not surprising since I had essentially been on a training plan since August, between the 10K and the half marathon. I don’t know that I needed a drop back week quite so often. I think next time, I may schedule that for just weeks I’m on call or traveling, and then maybe allow a couple of extra weeks overall to stick in a light week when I need it.
• I was really flexible about what days I did each workout, which sometimes resulted in running 5 miles back to back on the weekend or trying to put in an extra run after my long run. That was okay and I came through it safely with the first training cycle, but looking at more speed work and other high quality runs in the next training cycle, I need to try to respect the spacing of workouts a little more.

I haven’t decided yet if I’m going to step up to the next Hal Higdon half marathon plan or go to a different plan (currently reading the Train Like a Mother half marathon plan), but I’ve got plenty of time to decide.

Overall, this training cycle was a good experience, resulting in me crossing the finish line feeling good enough that I’ve already signed up for another half marathon. I’ll keep you posted about what training plan I choose and what new goals I set. Do you tend to stick with the same training plan each time you run a given distance or try out different options?

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