Half marathon training program for running moms

After my previous posts for running moms with some general advice for beginning runners and suggested training programs for 5K and 10K distances, this is (at least for now) the last post in this series with a suggested training program for a 21K run, also known as half marathon. As already mentioned in earlier posts, please use this program as a guide only and adjust where necessary in order to make you feel as comfortable as possible with the level of activity as well as with the selected days for each specific session.

Before starting this program, make sure you already feel comfortable running a 10K distance. If you are new to running, haven’t been running for quite some time or if you just don’t feel ready yet to comfortably run a 10K, please take a look at my suggested training program for 10K first – I would recommend completing that program before starting to prepare for a half marathon. If you do feel comfortable already to run a 10K and you would like a bigger challenge, then you’re ready to start with below program. I have chosen the Sunday for the long run supposing that’s the best day for most people for a somewhat longer session – but if you have more time available on any other day in the week, feel free to move the sessions to different days – as long as you make sure the trainings are spread throughout the week in a similar way as below (e.g. do not plan 3 runs on consecutive days followed by 3 rest days). Following the long run on Sunday, I have included a cross training session on Tuesday, a run on Wednesday that will vary from 5 to 12K throughout the program and a somewhat shorter run (4 to 8K) on Friday, for a total of 4 training sessions per week. A cross training session can be any kind of exercise except for running: for example, you could swim, bike, walk, do some cardio workout in the gym (e.g. stationary bike, elliptical), take a group fitness class at the gym (e.g. spinning, aerobics, Zumba) or do some cross training at your own home with help of an exercise DVD.

If you know already before starting the program that there will be several weeks in which you won’t be able to do all 4 sessions, I would suggest taking a bit more time than the suggested 12 weeks to complete the program – that way, if one week you were only able to do 3 (or 2) sessions, you can repeat that week once more before moving on to the rest of the program.

Here is my suggested training program to prepare for a 21K race:

Interesting detail of this program: if you complete all exact distances as listed above, you will have ran 350K in 12 weeks! Impressive, right?

Good luck and feel free to share your experiences in a comment below! I will certainly share my own experiences later this year as I plan to run my second half marathon in December and will be using this program to prepare. No training program for a full marathon for now, as I’m not ready for that myself – but who knows in a couple of years?