Thursday, September 11, 2014

Half-Marathon training plan

I signed up for my first half-marathon, the Angkor Wat International Half-Marathon in Cambodia in December. It lined up with a trip we are taking there and should be a fun location (view-wise) while also difficult (heat-, humidity-wise).

From what I've read, the race is on a super-flat course, on a mix of packed dirt and pavement, in a hot and humid environment. The winning time was 1:16 (!), and the top 10% finished in under 1:44, top 25% in under 1:52, top 50% in under 2:03. I'd like to be able to place in the top quartile, but have no idea how I'll do with the heat & humidity.

I read a few articles on the web about training for such a thing, and cobbled together the following 14-week plan, which I started about 12 days ago:

Each week consists of 4 running days. Two 5k's at 80%-ish pace. One long run, starting at 10k at week two and going up over time before tapering at T-2wks. Fridays will consist of a mix of mixed sprints, running with weight vest, hill runs, etc. I'm doing this on top of my Crossfit training, with the long run falling on my day off, and one of the 5ks counting as my active recovery that we normally do on Thursdays.

This is what the plan looks like:


* The Thursday Crossfit is an active recovery day, so it's basically that 5k run plus some skills work
** CF-Trvl means my own crossfit-like workout while travelling. Body-weight stuff or hotel gym.

Anyhow, that's the plan. If anyone reads this and has feedback, I'd love to hear it.

1 comment:

  1. I always use Smart coach from runnersworld.com for all of my racing. It's free and allows you to pick the intensity based of of your personal 1 mile pace. I see that you don't run more than 4 miles on this plan. However, with as much CF training you do, you'll probably do fine.
    Best of luck!!

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