Rest: Rest days are as important as training days. They give your muscles time to recover so you can run again.

Tempo Runs: You can get by just fine in a half marathon doing just easy miles. However, adding tempo runs improves your fitness and your anaerobic threshold. Tempo runs are a continuous run with an easy beginning, a buildup in the middle to near 10K or 10 mile race pace, then ease back and cruise to the finish.

Intervals: If you want to run a faster half marathon, you have to practice running faster. We recommend adding short sprints into your training schedule with rest intervals of equal distance. Remember: sprinting can be hard on the body, so make sure to start off with shorter sprints and build up to the full 400-800 meters, especially if you’re new to speedwork.

Hill Workouts: Running on hills builds strength will help on the rolling hills of this course. On shorter runs, incorporate running on hills. If you want to take it up a notch, sprint up the hills for 20-30 seconds

Cross-training: Cross-training is any other form of aerobic exercise that allows you to use slightly different muscle groups than when you run. The best cross-training exercises are swimming, cycling or even walking. Cross-training for an 30-60 minutes will help your muscles recover before the weekend.

The Long Run: : At a minimum, you should get this up to 10 miles. Ideally, you should do a 12-14 mile long run so that you are confident you can handle the distance and can focus on seeing how fast you can cover the course.

Weekly Volume: At a minimum, you should be running three days per week. 4-5 runs per week is ideal for the experienced runners. Some people can get through a half marathon with as little as 14-16 miles at their peak training, although it behooves you to try to get it to at least 20-21 miles for your highest week.

Rest: Rest days are as important as training days. They give your muscles time to recover so you can run again.

Tempo Runs: You should try to do several workouts where you run for 20-40 minutes in the middle of the run at 10 mile to half marathon race pace or faster.

Intervals: If you want to run a faster half marathon, you have to practice running faster. We recommend adding 200 to 800-meter sprints into your training schedule with rest intervals of equal distance. Remember: sprinting can be hard on the body, so make sure to start off with shorter sprints and build up to the full 800 meters, especially if you’re new to speedwork.

Hill Workouts: You should be running on hills so that you have the strength to run well on the rolling hills of this course. If you want to take it up a notch and really push yourself, do hill repeats where you warm up a bit and then run hard up a hill and jog down slowly to recover — repeating 6-12 times

Cross-training: Cross-training is any other form of aerobic exercise that allows you to use slightly different muscle groups than when you run. The best cross-training exercises are swimming, cycling or even walking. Cross-training for an 30-60 minutes will help your muscles recover before the weekend.

The Long Run: : At a minimum, you should get this up to 10 miles. Ideally, you should do a 12-14 mile long run so that you are confident you can handle the distance and can focus on seeing how fast you can cover the course.

Weekly Volume: At a minimum, you should be running three days per week and 4-5 runs per week is ideal for the average runners. Some people can get through a half marathon with as little as 14-16 miles at their peak training, although it behooves you to try to get it to at least 20-25 miles or more for your highest week.