Half-Marathon Training: It’s All In Your Head

I have to admit that it has been a while . . .

I feel like high school was just a couple of years ago, but who am I kidding I am married and have 3 kids!!! In high school, I was part of the Track and Field team. I loved every minute of it . . . well all except the nauseating nervousness before a race. I certainly wasn’t the best on the team {or the worst}, but it taught me that to be fit and challenge myself I needed to dig deep. To look inside myself and push to the end. In these “few years” since high school I have come to regret not pushing myself harder. I know I could have done better, but I didn’t fully realize that running is all in your head. Running isn’t just about training your body to be fit, you need to go through a mental training as well. I have heard so many times that “running is a mental sport . . . and we are all insane.” I have just come to realize how true that is while I have been trying to get my body back to where it was in high school.

 

My sister and I have signed up to run a half-marathon together at the end of July. Note: This will be my first running race since high school . . . oh dear what am I thinking?!?!?

 

We both have 3 small children and have husbands that are gone 80 hours of the week {at least}. My sister came up with a training schedule for us to follow. We live in different states, but send text messages back and forth telling each other our times when we have finished our run for the day. Somedays she has the better time and it pushes me to do better the next running day and vis versa. We have a small window during the day when one out of our three children is at school so we load up our double strollers with the other two and take off during our time of “freedom” with only having two kids. Let just say, that if we can find time so can you!

Note: For the “long runs” on Saturday’s, we wake up early and leave the double strollers at home, our husbands are usually around to watch the kids.

Getting back into the groove of running is hard! {Especially when your a mom of three very energetic boys.} I mentally push myself to be better on every run. Reminding myself that I don’t want to have regrets later about not doing my best. I tell myself over and over during my runs that, “you can do this . . . you’ve got this . . . when the song is over you can slow up . . . one more mile and you can slow down . . . etc.” Remember, it’s all in your head. Your body can achieve whatever you believe. You’ve got this!

 

We are training for this half-marathon over a 12-week training schedule. BUT before you can train your body to run a half-marathon you need to train your body to get used to running. Over the last 3 weeks we have been running 3 days, during the weekdays, doing 2-3 miles on each run. Then on the weekends we do a longer run of 4 miles. If you really are out of shape and need longer than 3-weeks to get ready try this, couch to 5K plan. I used this after having my second child. It helped slowly ease me back into running over 9-weeks instead of 3.

 

So you may be asking yourself: What half-marathon training schedule are you and your sister using? There are so many out there, which one do you pick?

My sister combined the Hal Higdon’s Novice 1 and 2 into a schedule that will work best for us. I have attached my PDF of our schedule so that you can easily print it out if it would work well for you.

I will keep you updated on how training is going along the way. If you need more advice on running a half-marathon that I, as a first-timer, don’t seem to cover because I haven’t come to that obstacle yet, check out my friend Leslee’s page, irunonempty.com. She has run a few and is currently training for another half and is blogging about the challenges of getting back into the groove of things.

BONUS: If you need an awesome workout song to add to your playlist try, On Top Of The World by Imagine Dragons. You will love it!Image Source