THE ULTIMATE HALF MARATHON TRAINING GUIDE
Lots of pages of our magazine are about the joys of running, a few are devoted to its challenges, but none, thus far, have been dedicated to how to do it—specifically, how to train for a race. Enter our Sport Chek fall half marathon training program. The key elements are consistency, running outdoors, and making slight improvements—run a little bit, then run a little bit more (don’t quit!) and you can rock your half in October. Below, Goran Miletic, Sport Chek’s national training specialist, tells you how you can find a new half marathon finish line in ten weeks and check out iRun.ca to win your fitbit Surge and get 5K, 10K and marathon training plans! WEEK
MON
1
6 km Steady Aerobic Pace
TUES
WED
THURS
FRI
SAT
XTrain
Rest Day
4km Steady Aerobic Pace
6 x Uphill with 2 mins recovery
30 min Warm-up pace jog
Rest Day
2
6 km Steady Aerobic Pace
XTrain
Rest Day
4km Steady Aerobic Pace
6 x 1km Repeats
45 - 60 min Warm-up pace jog
Rest Day
3
6 km Steady Aerobic Pace
XTrain
Rest Day
4km Steady Aerobic Pace
6 x Uphill with 2 mins recovery
8 km Warm-up pace jog
Rest Day
4
6 km Steady Aerobic Pace
XTrain
Rest Day
4km Steady Aerobic Pace
6 x 1km Repeats
9.5 km Warm-up pace jog
Rest Day
5
6 km Steady Aerobic Pace
XTrain
Rest Day
4km Steady Aerobic Pace
6 x Uphill with 2 mins recovery
11 km Warm-up pace jog
Rest Day
6
6 km Steady Aerobic Pace
XTrain
Rest Day
4km Steady Aerobic Pace
6 x 1km Repeats
13.5 km Warm-up pace jog
Rest Day
7
6 km Steady Aerobic Pace
XTrain
Rest Day
4km Steady Aerobic Pace
6 x Uphill with 2 mins recovery
13.5 km Warm-up pace jog
Rest Day
8
6 km Steady Aerobic Pace
XTrain
Rest Day
4km Steady Aerobic Pace
6 x 1km Repeats
15 km Warm-up pace jog
Rest Day
9
6 km Steady Aerobic Pace
XTrain
Rest Day
4km Steady Aerobic Pace
6 x Uphill with 2 mins recovery
15 km Warm-up pace jog
Rest Day
10
6 km Steady Aerobic Pace
XTrain
Rest Day
4km Steady Aerobic Pace
Easy run 40 min
RACE DAY!
Rest Day
Follow our program and win a fitbit Surge! Details at iRun.ca!
16
SUN
INSIDE YOUR TRAINING PROGRAM Steady Aerobic Pace/Steady state: intensity under your anaerobic threshold, which could be about 85-90% of MaxHR. Comfortably hard feeling. So in other words, faster than jogging, but slower than racing pace. XTrain: when it comes to cross training, whether it’s the bike or the pool, it’s important to work your body just below the threshold. Start off at a comfortable pace to get the body warmed up then begin to hit a higher rate of fixed exertion for the next few minutes. Hill Workouts: whether it’s a 50m incline or 100m incline, a hill is a hill, an opportunity to push your anaerobic threshold; in other words testing your body can withstand your lactic acid restrictions. It strengthens tendons and ligaments, reduces the risk of injury and improves overall running form. While these exercises do increase strength and muscular power, they do it in isolation of your running, focusing on individual joints and small sets of muscles.
BIKE: INTERVAL TRAINING • Turn the dial up and power through for 30sec on/1min off, 6-8 times. • Once these sets feel a little easier (week 3-4), power through an added 30sec and take less of a break dialed down.
SWIMMING: INTERVAL TRAINING • 10-20 laps of the pool with 10 sets of easy swimming for warm-up, strict focus on comfort and technique. • five sets of six laps. Swim four laps steady and two laps easy. This is an endurance set, your goal is to maintain similar effort across all of the repeats. Use each of the easy two laps swims for recovery, and take as much time as you need between efforts.
WHO IS GORAN MILETIC? Goran Miletic is the National Training Specialist for all Footwear and Tech accessories for both Sport Chek and Atmosphere. His work ranges from developing courses and Canada-wide training camps, to coordinating and educating advisers on Sport Chek’s in-suite gait analysis. Goran’s education and experience in running and athletics started at the age of 11 when he joined his first running club and slowly developed into a track athlete with his specialties ranging from 400 m – 800 m distances. He received his education on Human Kinetics from the University of Alberta as a student athlete and former captain of the Golden Bears Track and Field Team.
2015 ISSUE 05
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2015-07-16 12:34 PM