URGENT HELP NEEDED! 6 week training plan for half-marathon

Help!  I am running the Cardiff Half on 6th October.  I have only run a half once before which was in 2005, pre-kids (time 2:01).  I am a regular runner (a couple of 10ks this year) and my training was going fine (I was up to 14k at the end of July) but have just had 2.5 weeks of camping with my OH and the kids in France and although I took my trainers I didn't do a single step of running.

Have done a couple of small runs (about 5k in the last 2 days) just to remind my muscles what to do, but now I want to step my training up so that i can get as close to (and preferably better) my time from 8 years ago.

What should my strategy be? I'm thinking hill work, but how quickly should i up the distances I cover?  Obviously I want to avoid injury at all costs.  I can train 3 or 4 times a week (plus do some yoga, foam rolling etc at home).

Any advice gratefully received. Thank you.

Comments

  • What hm are you running? Road or trail, flat, hilly or undulating?

    You need to try and train over similar terrain as your event so if it's hilly then you need to run hills. How you do this is up to you, you can do specific hill work or you can do your regular runs over hills.

    I prefer to do one long run over fairly flatish terrain, one shorter hilly run then either speed work or hill undulations or hill reps.

    if you start your long runs at 8 miles then you should be ok. You can add a mile each week until your taper week. Then back down to 8 or 6, doesn't really matter. If you can manage to do 8 10 12 then try that but if you think that's going to be too much then don't.

    2.5 weeks shouldn't really have set you back that much and should certainly allowed you planty of recovery time.

    i don't know if you'll be able to improve on your previous time as I don't know what your running is like. However I do know that improvement comes with consistant training. Build on your endurance by running longer and slower, build on your pace by running shorter faster runs. Don't over do the training, don't try and beat your performance in training, save yourself for the race.

  • Thanks widow hog-mouse, sounds like good advice to me. I did a strong comfortable 10k on the BH so that has given me a confidence boost.  Looking forward to it now image

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