Six-Month Half-Marathon Training Plan for Beginners

Finally! I've been working on this plan for what feels like forever, and I finally finished it up today. I've posted it on my Training Plans page, but I'll share it here as well.

My original thought for this plan was to take a true beginner (non-runner) and prepare them to run a half-marathon (particularly the Rock 'n' Roll Vegas Half in November, since I'll be doing that with lots of From Fat to Finish Line tribe members). However, I don't want it to be specifically for that half, because you could use this plan to train for any half marathon.

This is a six-month training plan--26 weeks! If you are currently capable of walking 30 minutes, four days per week, and your doctor okays it, then you can certainly follow this plan to run your first half-marathon as soon as November. I basically combined my "Walk to Run" plan, my "Base Building" plan, and my "Finish Strong Half-Marathon" plan, made some tweaks here and there, and kept it as simple as possible, while still being effective.

At first, there are four workouts per week, and then in Week 15, a fifth day is added. The plan starts by building up from walking to running for a full 30 minutes, non-stop. From there, it slowly builds up the long run on weekends, while still running at a very easy pace. In Week 15, I introduce some very simple speed work--intervals from 60 seconds to (eventually) 5 minutes long.

The majority of the plan is EASY running. I stress that because easy runs are so important! Please read my post about The Importance of the Easy Run before you start any training plan. I became my fastest, while staying injury-free, by doing most of my runs at a very slow, easy pace. The post I linked to above describes it much more detail.

So, without further ado, I give you the link to my Six-Month Half-Marathon Training Plan for Beginners (it's in PDF format for easy printing). I hope you enjoy! I welcome any feedback, good or bad, about the results of the plan. I've gotten very good feedback about the other plans I've written, so I hope this one will serve you well :)

(P.S. If you are using this plan to train for the Rock 'n' Roll Vegas Half on November 12, then this plan will start in just a couple of weeks on May 15!)

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