Running is a lovely sport that people often fail to do because it seems tedious and hard and because we often want to overlook such things and would rather seek comfort. That is okay, but it is also sad because running is a way to freedom and happiness, simply because of the process of running.
For most people who opt to run and want to do it seriously, or rather, semi-seriously, they typically decide that the half marathon is the goal for their running. Half marathons aren’t that difficult to run, though for anyone who hasn’t run one, they seem next to impossible.
Here is how you can prepare yourself for a half marathon.
Start Running – Follow a Plan
There are tons of plans out there to get you into half marathon shape, starting with something as small as 500 meters, doing two sets at a time, with a rather slow tempo. As the weeks go by, you start increasing your tempo and distance, and at some point, you start doing intervals.
Regular progression is one of the easiest ways to get yourself into shape, no matter what you want to do. With running, the best thing you can do is run regularly, around two to three times a week should be enough.
Do Interval Training – Increase Your VO2 Max
Lung capacity is the most important thing for a sport like running. Why? It’s an aerobic sport. That means you rely on aerobic energy-generating processes to deliver energy to muscles over a medium or long period of time of an activity of light or medium intensity.
Lung capacity obviously helps in this case. VO2 Max measures how much oxygen you can breathe in, the maximum amount, while exercising really hard. This is why you need interval training. Interval training means running shorter distances very quickly, using about 95% of your power, often 90%, because if you sprint, running a kilometer or two would be really hard if not impossible.
Stretch Regularly
Just training isn’t going to cut it. You have to stretch regularly and keep your muscles flexible, the ones in your lower and upper body. The more flexible you are, the less likely you will be to get injured. This is true for running and any other sport and activity that you want to do.
Nobody likes an injury, so keep those muscles and tendons flexible and ready to rock, or rather, run.
Nutrition
It’s not easy to run if your body is full of sugar and other substances which are basically garbage disguised as food. Start removing industrial food from your nutritional plan and start eating more healthy food, vegetables, meat, fish, eggs, fruits and so on and so forth.
Drink lots of water and remember to stay hydrated.
Running your first half marathon is just a matter of increasing your distances steadily, while also working on your VO2 Max and keeping your muscles and tendons healthy. Better nutrition will help in every way. The only thing that remains is execution.