Here you will find three sixteen-week integrated training and nutrition plans for the half marathon. The Level 1 plan is for first-timers, the Level 2 plan is for more experienced runners seeking improvement, and the Level 3 plan is for advanced competitive runners. None of these plans is likely to be a perfect fit for you right out of the box, so I encourage you to make small adjustments to further customize whichever plan fits you best. For example, if you would rather rest on Sunday than Monday, go ahead and shift the entire weekly workout schedule back one day. If you’d like to do a 5K race or 10K race as a tune-up along the way (there are no tune-up races baked into the plans), go ahead and insert one, ideally at the end of a recovery week.
All of the running workouts are heart-rate based. Refer to Chapter 9 for guidelines on using my five-zone heart-rate training system. That chapter also provides information on how to perform each type of run included in the training plans.
In addition to the various types of runs, each plan incorporates optional cross-training workouts. I strongly recommend that you exercise this option by doing some form of nonimpact cardiovascular exercise (such as bicycling) to supplement your running. This will increase your aerobic fitness and running performance without increasing your injury risk. It will also help you reach your optimal racing weight and enhance the health benefits of your training. These supplemental workouts should be of moderate intensity and not so long that they interfere with your ability to perform well in your more important runs.
The plans do not include strength workouts, but you should consider these an option as well. Doing just two twenty-minute circuits of bodyweight exercises (push-ups, lunges, etc.) in front of the television a couple of evenings per week will give you meaningful benefits without overdrawing from your energy reserves or overburdening your schedule. If you are ambitious and have the time, you can take a more aggressive approach toward strength training that is closer to the one I recommend for quick start periods in Chapter 8.
On the nutrition side, the plans include daily guidelines for during-workout and postworkout nutrition and weekly guidelines for general diet (except during special periods such as the taper, when the general diet guidelines become daily). Refer to Chapter 5 for more details on nutrition during workouts, to Chapter 8 for further information on postworkout nutrition, to Chapter 1 for a refresher course on daily carbohydrate intake, and to Chapter 5 for everything you need to know about taper nutrition.
The diet-quality aspect of your general training diet is not integrated into these plans, but it is integrated into the training and nutrition journal provided in the appendix. There you will find space to total up how many times you eat each of the ten basic categories of food every week.
If you’d like more personalized coaching, interactive audio versions of the plans are available at pearsports.com. To use them you will need to own a PEAR Sports device such as the Square One. Simply download the workouts onto the device—which includes a heart-rate monitor, a foot pod for speed and distance tracking, a mini computer, and headphones—and follow my verbal instructions as I guide you through each workout and give you tips on diet, injury prevention, motivation, and more.