Tackling My First Half Marathon: My Training Plan

Running has never been my forte. Or ever really on my radar for that matter. I simply was not built for it (at least that's always what I've told myself). It was something other people did, and I was always impressed by their ability to go distances greater than 400 meters at a time without keeling over and dying. But somewhere in the last 2 years something changed. Moving to New York City there was easy access to parks and people of all shapes and sizes running, and one day I decided to pop over to Riverside Park to give "running" (read: veeerrry slow jogging) a go to throw a curve ball in my cardio routine. Fully expecting to start the run/walk alternation around 0.5 miles, I was beside myself when I finished and realized I ran 2 miles straight for the first time EVER. Albeit an incredibly slow 2 miles, but I started to pay a little more attention to the running scene after that. 

Now, 2 years later and much to my own surprise, I've completed my first half marathon (the 2018 Popular Brooklyn Half Marathon) this past May, and I've continued to enjoy incorporating running into my weekly workout routine! Besides being beyond nervous and excited for the actual race day, the training leading up to it was an adventure all on its own. 

I wanted to maintain my weight/resistance training while incorporating a half marathon running schedule, so after quite a bit of research and looking at several different plans, I put together my own custom 13 Week Training Plan. I really, genuinely loved the plan I created for myself and the training process overall. Having a solid schedule to stick to did wonders to help hold myself accountable for getting all of my workouts in! The actual race day was a rainy hot mess, but I can get more into that in another post.

With race season fast approaching, I thought I'd share the training plan I put together for myself for any other newbies (or just anyone interested). Please keep in mind this was just what worked for me, and I am very clearly no expert. But peep it below:

If you give it a try, have any questions, or have other plans you've tried, I would love to hear about it in the comments! 

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you find this helpful! 

xx
Slim