Half Marathon Training

Completing a half marathon is not nearly as difficult as you might think! The most difficult part of the half marathon is not the race itself but the time committed to training for it. Really, the training is not that difficult when you take it one day at a time. This is a big commitment but remember it's only for 12 weeks of your life and what you achieve here may mean a lifetime difference to an orphaned child.

Completing the training program allows your body to be conditioned over a period of time so that on race day you are ready to complete the half marathon with little difficulty. The training program we will use is based off of several nationally know training programs and has been adjusted slightly to meet our needs. This training program has been used before and there was a 100% success rate on race day.

The 12 week half marathon training program will begin on Monday, August 18th and finish the day of race. The schedule is based on training 4 days a week and resting the other 3 days.

Monday and Tuesdays are easy runs to help with cardiovascular conditioning.

Thursday workouts, typically done in the evening at the MJC track, are called "speed workouts" and help improve your per mile pace.

Saturdays are the longer distance group runs that will help your body adjust to the physical demands of continuous walking / running similar to what you will experience on race day. The Saturday run, although longer in mileage, will be done at your own comfortable pace. During the Saturday runs we will use the "Run a mile, walk a minute" routine for each mile. This allows the body to recover a little during the 1 minute of walking and is a good time to hydrate or consume an energy gel. On Saturdays we'll meet at 7am near the tennis courts at East La Loma Park and run on the trail along Dry Creek.

To view the training schedule click on the link in the upper right corner of the page.