By Laurel Leicht, photography by Pixabay
It’s so simple.
If you’re training for a half marathon, it’s time to ditch those 45 minutes or so you spend on the treadmill every day, slogging through a long, steady run. The same sort of run won’t help you burn kilojoules or run faster, says Jeff Gaudette, owner and head coach of RunnersConnect in Boston. So in order to make that happen, try a super simple swap:
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Do This: Slowly increase your mileage over three or four weekly runs (of around five to eight kilometres each) and one longer run, which can start around eight and ten kilometres and increase by a kilometre per week. Keep most of the midweek runs at an easy pace, but make one of them an effort close to your goal pace. To ensure you’re on track to make your time come race day, Gaudette advises a race-pace practice run three weeks out: Warm up at an easy level for one mile, then do four or six one-mile repeats at goal pace, with one minute of rest after each. If you can dial into that speed consistently, you should be good to go.
If you’ve run on a treadmill in your life, you’ll be able to relate to these thoughts every woman has had on the treadmill:
Drop This: Short sprint bursts. You’ve got to boost your aerobic endurance (how long you can sustain a set speed) rather than your max speed (how fast you can run for, say, 20 to 40 seconds), says Gaudette.
Looking to run your first marathon? Here’s 4 tips that’ll help you out, plus this is what you should eat before and during a race.
This article was originally published on www.womenshealthmag.com
