Half marathon training
⌠2023-03-20
Iâm running the 2023 Knynsa Forest half marathon (archive) this year. This is my first ever half-marathon, so I want to document my training for it.
The following table shows the training plan Iâll be following. Itâs a modified version of Hal Higdonâs Novice 2 Half Marathon training schedule (archive). Iâve modified Halâs schedule by lengthing it to 16 weeksâfrom 12 weeksâand making the distances more metric-friendly.
Week | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Saturday | Sunday |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Rest | 5 km | 5 km | 5 km | Rest | 6.5 km | 60 min cross |
2 | Rest | 5 km | 5 km | 5 km | Rest | 6.5 km | 60 min cross |
3 | Rest | 5 km | 5 km | 5 km | Rest | 6.5 km | 60 min cross |
4 | Rest | 5 km | 5 km | 5 km | Rest | 6.5 km | 60 min cross |
5 | Rest | 5 km | 5 km | 5 km | Rest | 6.5 km | 60 min cross |
6 | Rest | 5 km | 5 km | 5 km | Rest | 8 km | 60 min cross |
7 | Rest | 5 km | 6.5 km | 5 km | Rest | 10 km | 60 min cross |
8 | Rest | 5 km | 6.5 km | 5 km | Rest | 11.5 km | 60 min cross |
9 | Rest | 5 km | 6.5 km | 5 km | Rest | 13 km | 60 min cross |
10 | Rest | 5 km | 6.5 km | 5 km | Rest | 5 km race | 60 min cross |
11 | Rest | 5 km | 8 km | 5 km | Rest | 14.5 km | 60 min cross |
12 | Rest | 5 km | 8 km | 5 km | Rest | 16 km | 60 min cross |
13 | Rest | 5 km | 8 km | 5 km | Rest | 10 km race | 60 min cross |
14 | Rest | 5 km | 8 km | 5 km | Rest | 18 km | 60 min cross |
15 | Rest | 5 km | 8 km | 5 km | Rest | 19.5 km | 60 min cross |
16 | Rest | 5 km | 3 km | 3 km | Rest | Half marathon | Â |
Diary
2023-04-01
On the treadmill again. This was supposed to be the long run day but again we ran out of time. I thought we could squeeze all 6.5km in before Saturday BJJ but my time estimates were off.
- Distance: 5.00 km
- Time: 34m 37s
2023-03-30
Went running after work and before an evening meeting. Ended up having to hotfoot it as we almost ran late. Didnât make distance.
2023-03-29
Really cool run this morning. There was a fire on Table Mountain! The Working on Fire helicopters were flying from the lower Molteno reservoir, over us, and on to the mountain. We could even feel water droplets from their Bambi buckets. To end the run, we sprinted up Upper Orange for a coffee at the Ou Meul.
2023-03-28
Back on the treadmill today. Last weekâs calibration seems to have worked since the treadmill matched the watch really well. However, most of our gymâs treadmills impose a thirty minute time limit on runs. That makes it a little annoying when youâre running > 6 min/km. That either means you need to seek out treadmills with longer time limits or just run fasterâŚ
- Distance: 5.01 km
- Time: 34m 48s
I get pretty bored while running inside. Often I listen to music but today I went with podcasts. I listened to the tail end of Hackers Incorporatedâs Lessons Learned in 2022-ish (archive) the start of ATPâs 526: Food Comes From Cans (archive).
2023-03-26
First cross training day. We took advantage of a Kayaking voucher I was given for my birthday. Usually, the trip is scheduled to last 2 hours but wind and a bit of rain made our guides decide to turn around early. Really good experience regardless. See Cape Kayak Adventures (archive) for more.
2023-03-25
This weekâs âlong runâ. Drizzly, cold and wonderful. Overshot the 6.5 km planned distance but thatâs okay.
2023-03-23
Quite a tough one today. The Molteno Dam, featured in 2023-03-21âs entry, doesnât open at lunch time. So we had to do zig-zags up the mountain to make distance.
2023-03-22
Treadmill this morning so no Strava image. My watch (Garmin Forerunner 245), needed a bit of calibration to get its accuracy right. No GPS means itâs doing a lot of guesswork.
- Treadmill distance: 5.0 km
- Watch distance: 4.3 km
Itâs a pity that you canât calibrate the watch before it sends everything to Strava. But I guess thatâll mess up all of Stravaâs analyses since it wonât know where to add the distance delta. Like should it smear the distance over the complete activity or maybe just add it on at the end?
2023-03-21
Day 1! I almost forgot to run today. It was a relatively easy one. Just up to the Molteno reservoir and around a few times. Iâm not planning to slow down my Brazilian Jiu-jitsu training during this half-marathon prep so itâll be interesting to see how one affects the other. BJJ is always on Monday and Wednesday evenings.