After Completing the Bath Half Marathon this Year, in just over 2hrs!
An amazing and fulfilling experience, highly recommended and worth every single training day! I’ve written this Blog post to help anyone thinking of training for a Half Marathon or wanting to get back into running. You can do it too! Just Grit your teeth when it gets hard! Is well worth it, I promise!

This regime is meant for runners who have already completed 10k runs and are healthy and fit.

8 Week Daily Training Guideline

Mondays
Use this day to do different forms of exercise such as Cycling, Cross training, swimming, walking
and try some core stability exercise classes such as Pilates and yoga.

Tuesdays
Interval Training. A day when you incorporate sprints into a 40-45 min run, lasting 30 Seconds or longer

Wednesdays
40-45 mins easy run (3 miles+)

Thursdays
REST DAY

Fridays
Interval Training/hill running in a 45 min run, sprint up those hills to build your stamina and endurance

Saturdays
REST DAY

Sundays
LONG RUN -7 miles- (Very important to complete!)

For the next 7 weeks Gradually increase the sprints, length of runs and no of intervals weekly as you train. Aiming to run at least 10 Miles on your Long run two weeks before your Half Marathon.

Its important the Week before the race to conserve your energy and only do very short runs and have a massage to loosen up your muscles ready for the race.

Nutrition

These are some nutritional guidelines whilst you are training

• Eat 3 main meals a day consisting of Protein, Carbs and fresh veg or salad.
• Essential fats in your diet. E.g. Hempseed oil, Olive oil, Cod liver oil.
• Glucosamine Sulphate supplements for your joints
• Increase your complex carb intake, such as Brown rice and pasta.
• Increase your protein intake with natural sources e.g. Eggs, beans & Pulses.
• Or  Protein Powders such as Hemp and Soy protein.
• Hydrate Hydrate Hydrate!
• 5 a day fruit & veg including Green Leafy Veg such as Kale and cabbage to increase your calcium, vitamins and antioxidant intake.

Make a daily smoothie, which incorporates your 5 a day with added protein powder of your choice, yum!

On the day of the race eat 2 hours before the run (important so you don’t get a stitch!), Porridge is ideal with fruit and hydrate, hydrate!  After the race get warm, hydrate and eat a little chocolate to give a quick energy boost, and then a large carb and protein rich meal! Well deserved!

Running buddy or Personal Trainer

When I started training on my own I often felt the fatigue and stopped at the 5^th or 6^th mile mark. So I buddied up with an amazing friend who was a natural runner, who helped me get to the 10mile mark through sheer grit! This made the training runs so much more fun and distracted me from the fatigue with talking and laughing!

Running Gear

In order of importance!

1. 1. Running shoes – Essential if you want to support your knees and ankles whilst running
   2. Foam Roller – Similar to having a Sports massage, rolls over your tight muscles to loosen them after a run and helps you run further on your next training session.
   3. Running watch, e.g. Garmin running watch. Tracks your progress with GPS and also stores each run, letting you know if your run improved in speed or distance from past runs.

Books

An essential book I loved to read about running was RUN, FAT BITCH RUN! By Ruth Field (ignore the title!). This book is amazing at motivating you each morning to get you up and into your running shoes. It made me realise I needed to grit my teeth on the hard parts of exercise and embrace the pain, to feel the rewards!

Fundraising

A huge motivator for me and why I ran the Marathon was because I believed strongly in the charity I was running for: TreeAID and the memory of my Mum.
I managed to raise over £1000+ in fundraising money though Flapjack, Cake sales & online donations through Justgiving.com. So run for something you passionately believe in and aim high with the monetary goal! Remembering to hassle people who can afford to sponsor you, will help you reach your target faster!

Why Tree Aid?

TreeAid was chosen because I strongly believe in helping the environment and trying to mitigate my Carbon Footprint. The charity plants trees near the Sahara desert in Africa preventing Further Desertification. Creating business opportunities for local African women, through the production of tree crops such as Mangos and Shea Butter helping them empower themselves to get out of poverty in the poorest areas of the world.

If you would like to run for TreeAid in the future on their London Royal Parks Half Marathon click here 

I can also be that buddy (Personal Trainer) who helps you with your Marathon Training.  Contact me  here for further information and advice you may need?