First half marathon

[Cherryblossomsmile]

So I've been running for a year. Starting with c25k. I went onto do 3 10k races. Best time was 68 mins but following surgery and no running for 6 weeks it feels like I'm starting pretty much from scratch.

This morning I did 5k in 42 mins. I have 129 days to train. Is this enough time?

At my current pace I think I will be over 2.30hrs but I'm determined to complete the course as I have a charity place.

I can run 3 x a week.

Any advice or tips?

Look up training plans

I recently did a half.... Like you been running a year and have similar times. My half aim was 2.30 but due to the heat! I got 2.43. Still pleased with that

If you aim to increase your distance by no more than 10% each week, I reckon you've just about got time time get to about 12 miles before tapering.

I did my first half last Sunday and it was quite warm - particularly grateful to the people offering garden hose sprays in the closing couple of miles! Managed 2:02.33 - better than my training time.

Good luck!

Thanks both of you and well done for completing the half. Especially in heat. The one I'm doing is in October so I'm hoping it won't be too warm.

So you thin I should increase my long run weekly slowly until 12 miles. Did you not do 13 before then? What did you do the fortnight before the race? How did you taper?

I've looking at a few plans online but most are 4runs a week. Is it possible to train with 3 runs a week?

If you type into google three day half marathon plans loads come up. There's a runners world one I had looked at that does one day speedwork, one day tempo run and one day long run. I was maybe going to do something like that for mine and if I find an extra day for another run or crosstraining at the gym then all the better.

It's my first hm in Sept and I'm kind of half-winging it tbf . I'm not putting any timing pressure on myself other than to get round it before the time limit of three hours.

Tapering: I did my long training runs on a Friday, and the HM on a Sunday. So, 3 Fridays before, I ran race distance, 2 Fridays before I ran half race distance, and the Friday immediately before I just did a gentle little run.

If you mostly aim to get round, do 12 a couple of weeks before, taper, then treat the HM as a training run. Or if things go really well in training, you might be able to squeeze up to 13 beforehand.

I'm a big fan of the 10% rule as I have picked up injuries when I haven't abided by it. However, you may well be younger and more resilient than me!

Thanks for explaining tapering. I've had a look at 3 x a week training plans and decided to up it to 4 x a week. It means I can do less more often if that makes sense?

Makes sense to me! Do keep us posted!