Next week officially kicks off MY Princess Half Marathon/Glass Slipper Challenge Training! (This may vary from other racing plans)

Date of Races is February 20th and 21st, 2016.
I can’t believe its’ already here! Actually a little quicker than I expected, but this timeline will take you from base to full go- taking 5.5 months total to train!  Here’s some ideas on why you should choose to follow this plan…

So just to prepare you, all that our plans for next week include is a max 2 mile run. yes, a 2 mile run, but several times that week.

As I’ve already been training between 3-5 miles on my weekly runs, this won’t be hard, but if you haven’t been running at all, this is a great start.

My plan includes a minimum of 2-3 runs per week, preferably at least a 2 mile short run, a shorter distance run, and a longer distance run.
Each week your long run increases by .5 of a mile (your middle distance run should increase a bit as well to at least 3-5 miles over time, and your short run at least 2-3 miles)
This may seem like its drawn out, but last year in training, when there were vacations, snow days, muscles strained weeks, sick days, it allowed you to skip a long run week every so often, then jumping a full mile on the next run rather than half. It allows for obstacles.

You may opt to skip that .5 mile add every week and go for a shorter and 2 mid-level runs that week instead.  Overall the idea is to slowly increase your weekly mileage and your ability to run longer distances.  You may choose to do some back to back weeks, and some mid-level weeks.  The plan gives you this option.

This training will also utilize back to back day trainings in December and January every other week to simulate the Glass Slipper Challenge and slowly build this up.
In our training, in the off 3-4 days, there will likely be at least 2 days of doing something strengthening, or different….just get off the pounding of the legs!  As an athletic trainer, pounding and tendonitis injuries are not anyone’s friend.

I am also big on ‘Rest’ days!
My rest days often are my busiest workdays, though.

This plan allows for variation of days, you may choose from week to week what works best for you!
My schedule is busy, so one week it may work best to run Wed/Friday/Sunday… another week Monday/Thursday/Saturday… and another week Wed/Thurs/Saturday. Just feeling it out each week to what the schedule looks like… however trying to keep the long runs around 5-7 days apart from each other.

So I’ll try to keep up posting updated schedules each week, but right now, mentally prepare and start thinking where you can run 2 miles at least 2-3 times next week!