3 Training Runs A Week To Your Next Half Marathon
TLDR; 12 week half marathon training plan at the end of this post, with only three training sessions a week, there is no reason you can’t also add these sessions to you week and tick off a half marathon goal.
I recently had the a friend approach me wanting to do her first half marathon and asked if I could help with a training plan. She is a capable runner who is able to run 10 kilometres without stopping and can run 5 kilometres in just under 28 minutes.
It sounded pretty straight forward but with a stressful new job which saw her starting her work day at 3.30am, a part time job as a spin class instructor, and with a hope to start playing social netball in the coming weeks, it seemed we needed to be more creative with her training and possibly only do specific run sessions on three days of the week.
With her fitness base, I thought three runs a week would still allow her to improve her endurance and get her ready in 12 to 10 weeks. As long as the runs were quality sessions and she allowed sufficient recovery in between.
Days Off
Even though three training runs a week leaves for four days off, my friend was teaching spin class two of those rest days. I recommended that she keep two rest days during the week, one on Monday to recover from a long run on the weekend and a Friday to recover from the working week.
Session 1 - Run Workout
The original plan had the first run on a Thursday and was designed the most difficult run for the week. The training sessions only change slightly over the twelve weeks but are designed to help improve VO2Max as well as generally make longer distance runs easier. It basically has repeated runs of 1 minute, 90 second and 3 minute hard efforts, followed by a recovery period. I have put in a suggested speeds to be running at for these hard efforts, but if you are looking at incorporating this training plan for yourself, it should be an uncomfortable pace, where you are only able speak one or two words at a time. It would be equivalent to a runners 3km or 5km pace and after each hard effort there is a period of walking to recover.
Session 2- Easy Run
The second run for the week was set up for a Saturday and was an easy run for around 30 minutes. It is an easier run and is in place to help your body get used to running regularly. The runs also include some strides at the end of the run to help build running speed and strength. These runs should not be an all-out sprint but close to it. I tell people they need to be doing these runs at about 90% of there sprint speed.
Session 3- Long Run
Of course, when building up for a half marathon, we always need to look at adding a long run, which builds up to just over 90 minutes on week 10. The long run starts with just an easy run, and from week 4 there is a fast finish added in at the end of the run. It is basically 10 to 20 minutes of harder pace to finish of your run. I have suggested you run this at about 5 minutes per kilometre but should be a pace that the runner can sustain for 20 to 30 minutes.
Training Plan
Before we go into the training plan, we would suggest that any runner looking to use it in their training for a half marathon, they should have at least 4 to 6 months or consistent training. Even though it is a beginners training plan, it is assumed the runner has some base fitness before commencing this plan.
The first four weeks of the plan build up with the long run starting at 45 minutes and building up over the weeks with week 4 adding in a 10 minutes fast finish.
Weeks 5 to 7 build further with Session 1 extending the hard efforts to 90 seconds and the long runs continue to build over an hour.
Week 8 to 10 are building race specific pace with the Run Workouts moving into 3 minute hard efforts. The long run on week 10 is the longest run of the training plan with this run being just over 90 minutes with a 20 minutes fast finish.
Week 11 and 12 ease back a little making sure the runner is ready for race day and feeling fresh for a fun race day.
More running isn’t always the best option when it comes to run training and I believe that anyone aiming for the first half marathon can do it and do it strongly with a similar training plan to the one provided in this post.
Found this post useful? Kindly tap the clap button! :)
Vince Sesto is a DevOps Engineer, Endurance Athlete, Coach and Author. One of his passion’s in life is endurance sports as both an athlete, coach and author. He is a certified running and triathlon coach with a goal to inspire people through his coaching and competition and to encourage people to live active and healthy lives.
His motto in life is, “I am trying to change the world, one run at a time”.
