Couch to Half Marathon in 16 Weeks

When you hear half marathon, I am sure your body cringes and there is a taste of vomit that hits your mouth. It is something that everyone fears to a certain extent and then brushes off like it is something that they could never imagine doing themselves.  I am here to tell you that it is not a scary form of body torture but in fact, something that can slowly become your most favorite thing to do.  There is something about running that frees not only your endorphins, but also your thoughts.   It has been proven to lower stress levels, heighten energy levels and increase your confidence levels during a time that you may be lacking on 1, 2 or all 3 of these things.

Almost one year ago, I was struggling with my new lifestyle.  It had only been a few months since I had started weight watchers and for the first couple of weeks I was killing it by only changing my diet. To my naïve amazement, those large losses were not a common occurrence and after a month or two my weight became stagnant and then started increasing again. One day I had enough, I stormed home from work in a frustrated state yelling, “That’s it, we are running a half marathon…” My boyfriend began laughing at me and sarcastically saying, “Sure Sam… In Vienna, right?!” A couple of glasses of wine later and a few very expensive charges to my credit card, we were signed up for the Vienna, Austria half marathon.

16 weeks of training, a whole lot of blisters and two pairs of running shoes later… We both completed our first half. Never in a million years did we think we could do it, but with a regular routine and running schedule I know that anyone can do it. Here is the schedule that we used, very simple and nothing unique but for your first half you really don’t need much more!

To all of you first time runners or experienced runners – what was your first race like and how did you train?

SS (Strength Train and Stretch): do your own routine or take a yoga class
CT (Cross train): cardio other than running such as biking, swimming, cardio class, etc)
Rest: You don’t have to skip out on exercise entirely. Take a walk, do some stretches or foam-roller exercises.

Week	Mon	Tues	Wed	Thur	Fri	Sat	Sun
Week 1	2 miles and 20-min SS	30-min SS	30-min CT	2 miles or 30-min CT	Rest	2 miles	Rest
Week 2	2 miles and 20-min SS	30-min SS	30-min CT	2 miles or 20-min CT	Rest	3 miles	Rest
Week 3	3 miles and 20-min SS	30-min SS	60-min CT	2 miles or 20-min CT	Rest	3.5 miles	Rest
Week 4	3 miles and 20-min SS	30-min SS	60-min CT	2 miles or 20-min CT	Rest	4 miles	Rest
Week 5	3 miles and 20-min SS	30-min SS	60-min CT	2 miles or 20-min CT	Rest	4.5 miles	Rest
Week 6	3.5 miles and 20-min SS	30-min SS	60-min CT	2 miles or 20-min CT	Rest	4.5 miles	Rest
Week 7	3.5 miles and 20-min SS	30-min SS	60-min CT	2.5 miles or 25-min CT	Rest	5K race (or 5 miles)	Rest
Week 8	4 miles and 20-min SS	30-min SS	60-min CT	2.5 miles or 25-min CT	Rest	5 miles	Rest
Week 9	4 miles and 20-min SS	30-min SS	60-min CT	3 miles or 30-min CT	Rest	6 miles	Rest
Week 10	4 miles and 20-min SS	30-min SS	60-min CT	3 miles or 30-min CT	Rest	10K race (or 7 miles)	Rest
Week 11	5 miles and 20-min SS	30-min SS	60-min CT	3.5 miles or 35-min CT	Rest	8 miles	Rest
Week 12	5 miles and 20-min SS	30-min SS	60-min CT	3.5 miles or 35-min CT	Rest	10 miles	Rest
Week 13	5 miles and 20-min SS	30-min SS	60-min CT	4 miles or 40-min CT	Rest	11 miles	Rest
Week 14	5 miles and 20-min SS	30-min SS	60-min CT	3 miles or 20-min CT	Rest	12 miles	Rest
Week 15	4 miles and 20-min SS	30-min SS	60-min CT	3 miles or 30-min CT	Rest	8 miles	Rest
Week 16	3 miles and 20-min SS	30-min SS	2 miles or 20-min CT	Rest	Rest	Race Day! Congrats! 13.1 miles	Rest