Following my post yesterday about how to increase your mileage from 10k up to half marathon distance, another friend asked me if I thought it would be too much of an ask for him to aim to run a half marathon, 7 weeks after training for and doing a 10k.
My friend is doing the Mey 10k on the 12th of May, then is wondering if he could train for and enter the Barrathon (half marathon) on the 30th of June. He’s just started up running again (January 2012) and is wondering if thinking about running a half marathon is perhaps a bit too much of a big ask of himself.
Me (in the Sun) running the Glasgow half mararthon 2011 🙂
I think, that as long as he takes it slowly and trains for it he’ll be able to do it. I always think that if you can run for an hour, you can run for longer, you just need to progressively train your body to deal with the distance.
7 weeks is fine to build up mileage, you just need to do it in small increments. You need to be careful not to do too much incase an injury gets you.
One thing to note that if you are going to increase your runs to longer than an hour, you’ll need to consider hydration, energy and recovery from long runs.
The big question is if you’re thinking about doing something like this is, do you WANT to challenge yourself to do it? The training will take up between 2.5 – 3 hours a week and you need to decide if you can fit this into your life or not.
If you do, and you think you’ll have enough time, you’ll be able to do it. You just need to put in the training (and avoid injury!) 🙂
Ideally it would probably be better if he had 10-12 weeks to train for it, but I think he should easily be able to do it with 7 weeks training, as long as he has a base of being able to run 6 miles / 10k / for an hour non stop.
Anyway, here’s a 7 week half marathon training plan I got together for him which consists of:
- Start training plan after being able to run 10k non stop.
- 3 runs a week: 1 easy, 1 efficient, 1 long.
- 4th week an easy week, do all runs easy if you choose to.
Lorn Pearson Trains... 
Thanks for that Lorn
A
Thank you for posting the 7 week plan. I was well into a challenging 18 week plan when I injured my foot and have been recovering for 3 weeks. I have 7 weeks till the 1/2 marathon in Disney and since I have a vacation planned around it and several friends running, I don’t want to bail out. I’m just now able to run cautiously again and was desperate to figure out what I was going to do for the next 7 weeks. This plan looks perfect for my purpose. Thanks again!
You’re welcome Linda – good luck with your half! 🙂
So glad I found this plan! As a runner with lupus, sometimes “regular” training is just not possible. Just like Linda, who posted above, I was following a longer plan, but lupus got in the way. I’m signed up for a half in 6 weeks, and am hoping this plan (along with cooperation from my body!) will help me get there. Thanks! 🙂
Great Jonella – thanks for the comment and good luck with your half marathon! 🙂
What an awesome plan…many many thanks. I too have been out Injured and just coming back and have a half in 8 1/2 weeks…this plan is going to come into effect on Monday! (i am just going to double up on week one to make it an 8 week plan?)
HI Craig, yep that sounds good. Take an extra week to get back into it. 🙂 run as you feel in the first week, no pressure, take it easy coming back. Good luck with your training and event. 🙂
Hey Lorn, I just wanted to thank you for your traing plan. Like your friend I’d only done 10k before I decided to sign up to a half marathon, with just 7 weeks to go. I followed your plan and completed my first half marathon today. 1:55:05. I literally couldn’t have done it without you. THANKS!! X
That’s great to hear Alice. Thank you and Well done. You did brilliantly!
Thank you so much for this post, it fits my situation perfectly. I’m glad I found it! I’ll be following your plan and doing a half marathon in April if all goes well.
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This plan suited me perfectly!!!!! My fastest 10km was 56min, and I followed this to tee! Got 1hr 48min for my first ever half marathon, and feel on top of the world! Thank you!!! Xxx
That’s great Jenny. Thanks for the message and well done on your first half marathon.
Hello,
After reading all these comments I feel motivated to start this 7 week plan in preparation for Copenhagen Half Marathon.
I will come back and write about my experience and results.
Thanks a lot for sharing!