I recently announced that my little sister decided to train for her first half marathon. Even better, she chose the Hokie Half Marathon! Naturally, we are planning on running the race together. She looked at a bunch of training plans and had decided on a Hal Higdon one, but also asked if I could write her one. I used a format and mileage build up similar to the one I used for my first half marathon, and I think she’s going to use the one I wrote.
This entire spring I’ve been running whatever I wanted to run and whenever I wanted to run, sans training plan. Although I enjoyed following the Hanson’s Marathon Method last fall (it made me feel hardcore), I think it really burnt me out on training plans by the end. Eighteen weeks is a long time to follow a regimented 6-day-per-week plan, and at times it made running feel more like a chore than something I got to do.
I was planning on not following a training plan (I planned not to plan… Is that still type A?). But after making the training plan for my little sister, I found myself tailoring it to fit my work schedule…
No training plan is complete without a race-related picture pasted into the Excel document. It feels nice to have a training plan to follow, though. Looking back it seems like I have followed a training plan during the summer for a fall race every year since 2011. I guess I just can’t get away.
Training plans: yay or nay?
Do you like following a structured workout schedule, or do you prefer to go with the flow?
Turkey Runner 
I always put my training plans in Excel (well Google Sheets) too. And then I have to add a column for what I actually ran vs. what I was supposed to run. Type A much? LOL Fun to run race w/ your sister!
I like to print it out and cross each day off! I think runners are often inherently Type A.
I am definitely a training plan addict! This is the first year where I’ve used a service (runnersconnect.net) to map one out for me, but I’ve always at least had an excel sheet with the mileage mapped out.
What would we do without our training plans!?
I just have a hard time grasping the concept that you don’t have a plan!
LUD.
But I do now, and before that it was the plan not to have one… so I still had one! 😉
I am going to be so sad on race day when I’m not in Blacksburg running the Hokie Half with you! I don’t follow a regimented plan anymore… I followed a very strict plan for marathon training in my early days, but then decided to run marathons for fun and quit following a plan. Of course, I had the Cruisers to run my long runs with so it was never a problem that I wasn’t getting enough long run miles in.
Can’t wait to see how your sister does! Daniel will be running his first half with me (the Parks Half) the weekend before the Hokie Half.
I don’t think I realized you weren’t going to be there this year! That’s a bummer. I mostly decided to follow a training plan for accountability and to make sure I increase my long runs accordingly. Usually, with Kim, it’s no problem because she just bumps our long run up by a mile each week. But since she’s about to have a baby (Aug. 31!) I have to pay more attention to how many miles I run since I’m doing my long runs on my own.
I hope you and Daniel have a great time at the Parks Half!! Will y’all run together the whole way?