Halfway Through My Marathon Training Plan

[rasheid]

I am halfway through Hal Higdon’s Novice 1 Marathon Training Program. The training program consists of 4 weekly runs: 1 long run, 2 short runs, and 1 mid-week long-ish run. I started the training the week of April 27th. Although I was pretty fit, I did not have much running experience when I started. I could reliably run 3 miles and could push to 6 miles. After 9 weeks in the program, I have run 176 miles, can reliably run 7 miles and can push up to a half marathon, and average > 20 miles/week.

I mostly started because (1) I was bored with workout videos, and (2) I thought a training program/goal would give structure to my workouts.

My major takeaways thus far:

• Training for a marathon is so much more than just checking off the 4 weekly runs. When I started the program, it seemed like 4 weekly runs was going to be easy to manage, even though the runs themselves would be hard. I’ve learned that it requires a ton of dedication outside of those runs to be successful: nutrition, cross training and stretching, sleep & time. For example, I do strength training workouts 3x/week and yoga 1x/week to help prevent injury.
• Mental toughness is key. Mental toughness comes into play in so many ways. It’s what keeps me going when I can’t get into the groove of a run. It’s what gets me out the door when I am tired. It’s also what slows me down when I need to recover or pace myself over a long distance. It’s what helps me rest and take days off.
• Trust the process - you can run a lot farther than you think! Honestly, every week I doubt that I will be able to complete the next week’s long run. Right now, I am staring down the barrel of a 15 mile run Saturday, and it’s … intimidating . But that’s how I felt about 8 miles, 10 miles, 13 miles, etc, etc. When I crossed the finish line of my first 7 mile run, I thought there was no way I’d be able to run an inch further the next week. But it never fails! That hope is what keeps me going week over week.
• The long runs are usually (& unexpectedly) my most fun runs of the week. It’s exciting to run the farthest you’ve ever run, and usually my expectations for the long runs are rock bottom anyways. Conversely, it requires the most discipline to finish the last short run of the week since those are mundane, and I am usually pretty tired by the end of the week.

What worked well & what I would do differently:

• [Worked well] Having a running buddy! Having someone to talk to during a 2.5 hour run can make it so much more fun.
• [Worked well] Finding fun places to run! I live in Seattle, & I use long runs as a way to explore different parts of the city!
• [Do differently] Do not wait till you’re injured to be intentional about injury prevention. Start stretching and basic strength training right away. I like these videos a lot.
• [Do differently] Avoid chafing at all costs. It sucks.

Wish me luck in the next half of the program - I will hopefully have a fun update for you in another 9 weeks.

 

[hiyall]

@rasheid Hi! Outside-of-seattlite here just starting hal's half marathon program. If youre into trail running super slow paces, I'd be down to run together!

 

[rasheid]

@hiyall I have never gone trail running! How did you get into it?

 

[hiyall]

@rasheid I use alltrails or trail run project to find the distance im looking for, and search for things with low elevation gain so it doesn't become a complete hike. It's also good to have a pair of tail runner shoes for most things just to prevent slips and falls, especially if it's rainy. Then just go!

 

[annabry]

@rasheid Solid work! I used the same plan to run my marathon and felt well prepared. I totally agree with your observations, especially about mental toughness. I think there were a few training runs that strengthened my mental toughness more than my physical toughness! Good luck with the second half of the program. It sounds like you're well on your way!

 

[dawn16]

@rasheid That program got me (almost) to my first marathon! If you tend toward low iron levels, watch out for signs of anemia. My doctor told me the combo of all of the miles, a genetic predisposition to low iron and anemia, and being a woman all contributed to me becoming severely anemic right before my marathon. I ended up running the half instead. Check in with yourself and how you're feeling so you can get to your goal.

 

[rasheid]

@dawn16 Oh wow! Thanks so much for sharing, and congratulations on completing the half marathon! I’ll check that out for sure, and make sure to pay attention to my body.

 

[oilpaintermom]

@rasheid As a personal coach and marathoner/triathlete, I must advise you to lower your distance for your own good. Marathon should never be for novice runner, you should do at least 2 half marathons and after that ask yourself, if you really want to double that distance. I'm not saying that you will certainly fail or have problems but you are very likely to have at least one major problems, here is why:

1) You are more likely to hurt yourself because

A) running 4 times a week is not enough to train for a full marathon. It's not a like a half marathon where you can do the full distance in training. Except for the elite athletes or ultra marathoner, you will never run the full distance so to compensate for that lack of miles, you need to to do at least 30 mile a week... on your easier week, and at least 45 mile on your biggest. The reason for that is to be ready to run your marathon without injuring yourself. So unless your do a lot of bike on your other days you should run 5 to 6 days a week, even with your cross training, to build that milage without doing too much intense training at once.

B) your body is probably not ready to do the training for a full marathon. Apart from the fact that not everyone has the body to do a full marathon, even if you have the potential to do it, your body need to be ready for that. That's why you should have trained for at least 2 half marathons (not just in training) so your body can adapt to do that full distance at once. After every race (and mostly the rest that comes with it) your body get's better, but it need time.

2) If you hurt yourself badly you are more likely to have a very bad perception of running long distance, even though you seems to enjoy it right now. Even you do not hurt yourself, you might push yourself too much and developed a bad relation with running because you outdo you pleasure limit, the same way you might find disgusting your best dish you were force to eat to much of it.

That being said, I wish you the best, but please jut consider what I said and ask yourself if that might happen to you and if you have some question, I'll be happy to answer it!

 

[brunojax]

@oilpaintermom There are plenty of individuals who have followed Hal Higdon's Novice plans with a lot of success to running their first marathon. He pushes the importance of easy paces, walking, and listening to your body.

I never ran a half marathon before I trained for my first. Before training for it, I was running maybe 10-15 miles a week and considered myself a novice runner. I followed his plan and I placed 3rd overall in my age group, at 30 years old. Was it hard? Sure. But that's what fitness is about.

Most important is that you're listening to your body during training. That may be the hardest thing for a "novice". Don't ignore pain. Know when to take extra rest days and when it's better to skip a run.

But I think it's really disappointing on a fitness group to read someone be so negative about an individual using a marathon training program. I'd rather read about ways to build them up and give them tips and tricks instead of trying to talk them out of what is an amazing, life changing experience.

 

[oilpaintermom]

@brunojax With all due respect, I'm only trying to prevent a bad experience to happen, based on my personal experienced as a coach, but also my studies at university on the human body and mind when it comes to training. Of course those kind of program might by a success for some, but I can guarantee you it's only for a minority. So for every thousand of people who had a great experience with that program there should be a least 10 thousands of people for whom it does not go well at all. There are so many people who discourage themselves because they did not achieve their goal not really set by themselves, but rather by society or by coaches who just want to have their money or are just incompetent. Some are trying to convince them to do half or even full ironman distance to people that had never done triathlon, do you think there are should be no limits for a first race distance?

But if you want to get into the details, a novice does not know how to listen to his body because pain is not necessarily bad, only the wrong kind of pain is. To know how to distinguish which pain is good or not usually takes experience or a coach being able to explain when it happens.

I never said that his half marathon training was bad, so I'm not sure why your experience is suppose to prove, but I can tell you for sure after looking at them, including the most advanced one, that you could have done a better time if you did more speed work. Genetics is the most important factor in training that's why you still manage to do a good time. I did my first half marathon while, still doing a lot of sport, I only did 3 specific runs
and achieve a time just over 1h40. Even if that times is way better than the average runner, I hope we can agree that it was not a good method to train. On my second, I found an online plan (pretty close to the Hal Higdon's one) with some intervals, but no real speed work, that I follow seriously and I did a bit below 1h35. On my third I had started my university program, so I integrated a lot of speedwork shown and it went down to 1h28 without training more. My point here is just that even if someone have some good genetics, it does not mean that his training is very good.

So that being said, those plans seems to represent the old way of training, but there are a lot of research in training, that's why records are so easily broken by athletes. Even if it was 10 years ago, his plan would be obsolete.

For a marathon there is no "tricks". There are certainly tips like doing some speed work to help improve the cardio and endurance better, but it needs to be well structured. One of the most important "tricks" is to have experience... I don't care if a client would give me 50 000$ for a marathon plan, I will refuse to train him for a marathon if she or he has not at least done 2 half marathon races. That's not because I do not want to help her or him succeed, but because I want to convince that person that for his own good and health, experience is require for such hard task.

 

[kristenn]

@oilpaintermom I tend to agree with you. Just being comfortable at 7 miles... I grimaced. The next 8 weeks are a half marathon distance every weekend. OP won’t die, best of luck, but this experience will be wildly unpleasant when getting experience with halfs first could have made it better.

 

[rasheid]

@oilpaintermom Thanks for your consideration, and I’ll keep that in mind!

Out of curiosity, have you read through Hal Higdon’s program or book on Marathon training? I ask because (1) this plan is specifically designed for novices and (2)most of his plans include only 4 days/ week of running.

 

[oilpaintermom]

@rasheid Your welcome! I haven't read his book, but I red the link you posted. As for the 4 days / week of running, all intermediate and advanced programs have more than 4 and that's kind of my point. Marathon should not be for novice because you need to run more than 4 times a week for your body to adapt for that kind of race.
An other thing important to consider is the long run. The longest run for novice is 20 mile and for advance 2, it's also 20 mile... But here is the thing, if it might takes in average of 2.5 hours to run 20 mile for and avance runner, it's more likely to take 3.5 hours to do the same distance for a novice. So the less advance runner is asking more stress to his body than the advance runner, hence having more risk to get injuries from his training. There is a lot of marketing that put pressure to do a full marathon, but the half marathon is the real healthy limit for most people (for some it's a 10k). 42 km is just a random number between 2 cities of Greece (if I'm not wrong). There are ultra marathons that are 100k or even 1000k and only a very small percentage of the population have the body to be able to handle such stress. The % is bigger for marathon but it still a aim to big for the majority of the population even though it's a very popular distance.
So long story short, what is important is to have fun when running and have goal that contribute to that!

 

[shingler7992]

@rasheid I agree with your point about long runs being the most fun... yeah they can be intimidating but conquering a new distance is empowering! That’s what ended up getting me into ultras... I love that I can just go and go and go now!

 

[rasheid]

@shingler7992 That's so impressive!!

 

[outandabout]

@rasheid Woot!! I’m halfway through Hal’s 3-a-week half marathon plan! My virtual race is August 16th and I agree with every single thing you said (though I don’t have a running buddy) except I do between 4-7 yoga sessions a week. I noticed once I added more yoga sessions my legs felt much better after long runs. Also, goddamn the chafing is not something I ever anticipated.

You got this!!!

 

[dawn16]

@rasheid I followed a 12 week marathon training plan for my first one in February, but I'm definitely going to use one of Hal Higdon's for my next one! I've heard lots of good things and the slow buildup of mileage over 18 weeks seems a lot better than the quick 12 week push I did. You're totally right about being able to run longer than you think you can. I jumped from a long run of 15 miles (fairly doable since I had already run a few half marathons) to 21 miles in like a week or two, and while I wouldn't recommend increasing the distance that quickly, I got through the 21 miles feeling relatively okay-ish. Or at least better than I thought I would. Keep up what you're doing and you'll be in great shape for the race!

 

[rasheid]

@dawn16 thank you so much! I am so amazed that you are able to train for a marathon in 12 weeks! that sounds so intense!

 

[dawn16]

@rasheid Wow this is so funny, I'm starting Week 7 of the Hal Higdon plan and all of this is like, exactly true for me. I didn't run much and decided to just jump into it. I was TERRIFIED of the long runs and every time I do one I cant believe it. THIS: Trust the process - you can run a lot farther than you think! x10,000. I also give myself the "ok" to walk as much as I need on the long runs and I swear that it helps me so much mentally.

 

[rasheid]

@dawn16 Oh wow that’s amazing! I’m glad you’re having a good experience so far! I love the idea of giving yourself permission to walk! It takes a lot of pressure off the long runs!