The Truth About Half Marathon Training In Progress

Half marathon training in progress is about developing and following a personal training plan. It’s a Gradual Process of training your body to run more based on your specific preconditions. In this way, the training progression gets the right load to gradually cope with more training.

Persistence Is Key in Half Marathon Training

Your training plan is based on physiology and the body’s response to the training. Every time we train, we break down the body. After finishing the training session and recovery, the body rebuilds to a stronger version than it was before the training. This principle is called supercompensation.

So your success in half marathon training depends on persistence with your training sessions to challenge the supercompensation and keep the process going. This applies whether it’s about running LSD, doing cross-training, or having rest days. The things play together.

So sticking to your personal schedule is often crucial for building endurance, increasing your strength, and enhancing your performance. Skipping training sessions because of a bad mood might feel good in the short term but can also slow your progress in the long run.

However, sometimes it can be necessary to adjust the plan, as you still have to remember to “listen to your body”. Most often, it’s a matter of being aware of the energy level during the day, and perhaps considering an easier run instead of the long demanding LSD run.

Half Marathon Training In Progress will adapt your body and movement pattern.

Running in itself is a weight-bearing activity with great stress on tendon tissue especially the Achilles tendon and knee tendon. Since muscles also consist of a tendon part in origin and attachment to bones, this is an area with a greater risk of getting an overuse injury.

This can happen because circulation and muscles adapt faster than tendon tissue. In this way, you can easily increase the load too fast for the tendon tissue to handle the load. Therefore, you have to be aware of increasing the load in line with what the tissue can withstand, and not what you think you can do based on what you feel.

But particularly In the early weeks of your half marathon training, your body can feel sore and tired as it adapts to the new demands you’re placing on it. Over time, however, your muscles and cardiovascular system will strengthen, and the discomfort will lessen.

As you know there is a difference in how tissue types in the body adapt to the load we expose it to. So, be patient, and aware of the adaptation rules as mentioned above.

Half Marathon Training progression – rules of thumbs

Continuity is the most important thing in relation to the training progression. It’s about having a good rhythm with the training so the body can get used to the load. It’s also a good idea not to progress too fast in training. A rule of thumb we often use in this context is not to increase the load by more than 10% per week.

And the load should not only be measured in kilometers or miles. There are several parameters we can adjust concerning load. It can be both the speed, the training amount, the surface, and other activities in addition to the running training. It’s not a good idea to adjust all parameters at the same time, but rather take them little by little.

It can, for example, be that the focus is on being able to run a little longer, and therefore it may be a good idea to keep the pace down. If, on the other hand, you would like to train more speed, you shouldn’t do it at the same time as you increase the number of kilometers for the week.

It can also be gentler on the body if you run on softer surfaces, such as forest paths rather than hard pavement. If you have done other training in addition to your running training, you must remember that this also counts in the total load on the body. As you see there can be several factors to consider when optimizing your resources in the training.

Cross-Training Enhances Performance

In general, to become a stronger and faster runner, you also need to practice cross-training – that means, consciously doing other forms of exercise, and in particular, cardiovascular training, strength training, and active recovery are great support activities.

This is related to the fact that even though you move, you only move in one plane of motion, which is called sagittal, or back and forth, and with one movement pattern (gait), making it easy to get stuck in one energy system (aerobic).

A more properly composed cross-training, on the other hand, will have you moving in all three planes of motion sagittally, forward, and transversely and through all movement patterns such as squatting, pressing, pulling,  lunging, and so on.

And it helps you to simply develop your body’s three energy systems, making you a stronger and more complete athlete.

Cross-Training Boosts Your Motivation

Cross-training can boost your motivation, as sometimes we need to do something new to avoid getting too onesided by just running, and a new route isn’t always enough. But making shifts in your weekly training sessions will add something extra.

Regardless of intensity level, doing something different can give certain muscle groups and your brain a well-deserved break and often you can feel the relief by performing other movement patterns. This training approach can ensure that your joy in the running sport lasts.

Cross-training also helps reduce the risk of injury. Most of us may not think that avoiding injury is the best benefit of cross training, but it’s the key to becoming a regular runner. Your cardio/lung system can get in shape relatively fast, but it takes longer for your muscles, tendons, and ligaments to become strong enough to withstand the hard loads of the pavement.

And because cross-training allows you to move laterally, jump, stop, and start, it teaches your body to move fully, ultimately making you an athlete who is less likely to get injured, on the pavement or anywhere else, (says Chris Bennett Global Head Coach for Nike Running).

Half Marathon Training – Rest And Recovery

As soon as you have finished your training, your body starts a recovery process where it also replenishes depleted energy depots. You can actually organize your diet and optimize the recovery process by moving and relaxing in the right way.

We often feel tired with sore muscles after a training session. This is because small tears have occurred in our muscle fibers. It’s a completely natural process that helps make the muscles stronger when they heal again, but healing requires that the body has the best conditions to do it.

Unless you are a beginner you can use active recovery. Active recovery can help remove toxins and metabolic waste by improving blood flow. This improved blood flow will also improve nutrient delivery to your muscles as they recover. Just remember it’s easy and gentle exercises and not a training session.

A part of it is also giving your body the right kind of rest before your recovery gets going. When you have used your body’s energy depots, they need to be replenished again so they can rebuild the damaged muscles. This process can be improved by eating a combination of carbohydrates and protein within half an hour after your training.

Optimally, you should have about one gram of carbohydrates per kg of body weight and a quarter gram of protein per kg of body weight. You should also make sure to drink enough fluids to replenish your fluid depots. Drink a little at a time, maybe a liter depending on your body weight, over an hour or so after training. In this way, you will consume the fluid you just used during your training session.

Relieve Muscle Soreness

So, to relieve the worst of the muscle soreness after hard training sessions or races, it may be a good idea to practice active recovery, such as walking, cycling, or swimming, or maybe do light strength training on the days when you do not run. You must keep your whole body in motion so running doesn’t become your only training.

This approach will get blood and nutrients to the muscles so fluid accumulation and waste products can be transported away and the soreness reduced. Sleep is also an important part of the process.

Sleep really gets the body going in rebuilding muscle fibers and tendons in particular. Therefore, it’s a good idea to get 7-9 hours of sleep every night and of course the most hours after the more intense training sessions, or when you feel extra tired and exhausted.

Tapering Period To A Half Marathon

The tapering period has been shown in several scientific studies to be crucial for optimal performance. Tapering can begin no later than 1-1½ weeks before a half marathon. This applies to both marathons and half marathons, that the more training, the longer the tapering period.

However, for a half marathon, spending the last 10-14 days tapering your training to be fresh and fully ready for the actual race day will usually be necessary. Two weeks before race day, you can run a hard LSD run at your upper half marathon pace. In the next week, you then cut 20% of your usual training amount.

This means that you still run just as often but 20% shorter. As mentioned, several researches have been done on what kind of tapering period is the best leading up to a half marathon. But the most important thing is that you are sharp and fresh on the actual race day.

Do not make the mistake of training too hard right up because you think you are behind in terms of reaching the last training. You simply need to slow down your training so your body is completely fresh on race day and not think about anything else.

Final Thoughts

Training for a half marathon is mostly about building your endurance, strength, and mental toughness while listening to your body and making sure to recover properly so the body rebuilds into a stronger version than before the training. The small improvements we achieve during half marathon training can often feel like a slow process, but with persistence, patience, and the right attitude, you will definitely be ready on race day.

I hope you get something out of this post. If you have any questions about the topic or want to leave your review, please leave a comment below.