It's that time again to start training! I'll be putting up a blog post each week with all my training for the week. If you haven't already guessed from the picture above, I'm training for North London Half on March 20th!

I'm pretty excited about this race, not so excited for the distance(I never am when it comes to half marathons!). It'll be my first time running the North London Half, the race is hosted by Vitality(who are my fave for races!) - so I know that it should be a great, well organised half marathon.

There's 9 weeks left till race day. I usually start training for a half marathon around 12 weeks prior to the actual race - but unfortunately, Christmas, indulgence and travelling around the Christmas period kinda put my training on a back burner and it took me a while to get back into running after the break.

So, I start properly training next week. I've been running a couple of times over the last week and a half and I've comfortably run 10k so I'm sure everything will be fine!

To the left, my running schedule and blogging schedule(so far!)- To the right - Printed a half marathon training plan from Charlie @ The Runner Beans - Check it out HERE

I've made the decision to go with 3 runs per week in my training plan after asking people on #ukrunchat how many runs people did per week. When training for half marathons in the past - I often found that I need longer to recover from runs. Phillip and his mum seem to be like machines! They can run several days in a row and it doesn't affect them at all. I on the other hand need a day between runs - if I run after previously running the day before, my legs are like lead and it's SO difficult(not so bad on a long run as it's an easy pace anyway).

I will probably add in a short 1-1.5 mile run here and there as a recovery run to just get my legs moving - but primarily I'll be doing a speed run like fartlek, interval or hill sprints,  a tempo run and my long run. Some of my runs are inspired from a HM training plan that Charlie from The Runner Beans posted not too long ago - you can find it HERE.

In between my runs, I'm determined to include cross training - everyone seems to recommend it. I've heard people say it's done wonders and has definitely helped them improve their running times which is something that I definitely want!

So, I'll be starting Yoga again so I can help stretch in between and after runs. I'm also starting home workouts again - I've already done a kettlebell workout this week(DOMS is horrible!) - I hope to cross train at least twice a week. Then of course I have swimming on a Monday too.

Since I have run this week - but haven't really done the scheduled runs for training, I'll just fill you in on the runs I've done since getting back on the running train to let you know where I'm at and then I'll let you know what runs I have planned for next week!

Weds 6th - 4 Miles
Sun 10th - 5 Miles
Mon 11th - 6 Miles
Thurs 14th - 35 Min Kettlebell Workout
Sat 16th - 3 Miles

On the edge of the cliffs on the Arboath Coast!

These are the runs/workouts that I've done over the past 2 weeks - I was in Scotland on the 10th and 11th and we went running along the coast - it was very windy, very cold and VERY hilly at points so it was almost like a long run combined with hills! I ended up getting a niggle in my calf(probably doing too much over 2 days) so rested to let it ease.

I'm ready to get back into proper training now, so here's what I've got planned for this week

Day Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday

Scheduled Swim Cross Train Tempo Cross Train Swim Park Run / Speed Run(Intervals/Fartlek/Hills) 6 Miles

So,  I've got 3 of my runs scheduled this week - Saturday will either be a park run or a speed run(or maybe I might be able to do both - I'll have to try doing my interval run during my parkrun - could be interesting!)

I'm starting off at 6 miles for my long run - I'll up my miles each week leading up to the race and will end at around 11 miles before taper. I've put in two swims for this week and I will be cross training between runs too.

Hopefully I get off to a good start! You'll find out next week!

Question: Are you training for anything yet? What races do you have planned for this year?

Like this post?

Follow me on Bloglovin' OR Subscribe for Email Updates

Other places to find me:

** Twitter ** Instagram ** Pinterest ** Facebook ** Google+ **