Great North Run training for beginners..

[parkers]

Has anyone out there completed a half marathon?

I am a complete beginner when it comes to running and am baffled by the amount of different training schedules.. It is on the 1st October, so I have 8 full months of training.. Can anyone suggest the best way to prepare for this?

Thanks

[campbellking]

parkers..get out there and enjoy it! Have just completed my first half marathon for thirteen years and loved it.Joining a running 9club might be an option, as all will have sessions for beginners, and believe me, there will be people slower than you. I tend to train on my own, the runnersworld website has no end of information on events to enter and training schedules. It also has a free to accesss events diary, so you can build up your running distance (don't do what I did first time, and not enter any shorter distances first), try a 5k race, 10k race etc. Think website is www.runnersworld.co.uk

[TEAK36]

I am planning to run my first half marathon in June, and have been training for a couple of weeks now.If you go to www.runnersworld.co.uk it gives loads of advice on the correct training and diet, and they also have training plans that you can print off.

[parkers]

Excellent, thank you !

[Ward-Minter]

Nearer the date (Aug 16th ish) I would undertake a lot of uphill running. By building the sheer grit needed for hill racing will not only unlock muscles you didn't know you had but also running on flat will seem relatively easy.

Further, when you buy footwear buy two pairs exactly the same. Wear both pairs alternate days so they will not be worn out come the big day.

Further further, up to three days before the race eat as many carbs as physically possible.

[Bohne]

Yes last year in May.

I started on a programme called from 0 to 42, which was supposed to bring absolute non runners to run a marathon after one year. I started a little late, so I decided to go for the half-distance...

I still have the training plans somewhere.

Important for me was, to really stick to them, and not leave out this or that training. After a while it became real fun, even though I had to get up at 5:00h in the morning to go running before work.

It started with 3 days a week, 30 and 40 minutes each. They never spoke about distances, everybody could run as fast as he/she felt comfortable or even walk in the beginning.

Then every month it got harder.

Four days a week, 30,30,40, and 50 minutes

Four days a week 30,40,40 and 60 minutes

Five days a week 40,40,50,50 and 70 minutes

And so on...

I felt really comfortable doing it, and considering that about 800 previous non-runners completed that marathon or half marathon, it cannot have been completely wrong.