So my last running race was almost 2 years ago and I’m gearing up for a late half marathon this fall. My training for triathlons, marathons, and half marathons has always been something I would describe as unstructured and maybe even lazy. Most triathletes and runners are doing prescribed workouts, with runners easily running 4-5 days a week. During my previous marathon and half marathon training the max I would run ever was 3 days a week. And those workouts consisted of two 3 mile runs at whatever pace I felt like and 1 long run. That’s it. No tempo runs, no speed work, nothing. Basically, I would just get the runs in and figured on race day my adrenaline would carry me through. And so far this nonstructured plan has worked pretty well. My first half marathon was in 2013 and far exceeded my expectations of going sub 2:00 with a time of 1:54. Even my Broad Street run times would stay strong without me trying to push myself or switch up my training. My last half marathon was something I did try to accomplish a PR on and succeeded with a time of 1:50.
This fall I decided I want to try to train how “you’re supposed to” and see what happens. I’m definitely someone who does not push myself outside of comfort zone so speed work is definitely something that will challenge me. I’m not following any specific plan but just trying to run 4x/week and include a tempo run, a speed run, an easy run, and a long run. So far I’ve only been at this a couple weeks (mostly because I’m not someone who will “train” more than 8 weeks for anything) but I am feeling good. My body has been adjusting well to some harder work, I think mostly because I’m coming off half ironman training which is a beast in itself. Recently I ran 6 miles during a week day run- I’m pretty I’ve never gone above 5 miles prior to that. I am definitely putting in more work and hoping to see what I can do. Some of the types of workouts I’ve been incorporating lately are below- full disclaimer I’m not a running coach and these are mostly ideas I’ve gotten from the internets. As far as the half this fall my goal right now is to PR but I’ll have to see where I am closer to race day.
What have you been training for?? What type of training do you like to do- pushing yourself, lazy, or somewhere in between???
