My half marathon training with Running Potential

Training is a very important aspect of any half/full marathon aspirant or participant. When I registered for the Pune half marathon, I knew I had to train hard given I was an amateur runner. To top that its 21.1 km I was thinking of running, my longest ever. If one has to finish a book before a deadline, one doesn't start writing a day before. It takes work. I think as great writers write everyday, even great runners run (must be?) every day or train on a regular basis.I was pretty ignorant of running techniques, training, how much to run, how long to run, whether to monitor my heart rate or my pace, etc etc. I had jumped in thinking google, fellow runners would help me find a way. On one of my Sunday runs I met Anand (we work at the same place) from running potential who is an accomplished runner himself. We talked about my 'running' plans and he suggested I attend a talk he was going to give about 'Physiology of running'. I was welcome for any insights and went in to attend, a bit hesitant. It was a super informative and illuminating talk which focused on the science behind running and its aspects. I immediately signed up for training with running potential as mentioned in the super long post I wrote earlier.

my training log for HM with reds and greens all over it :)

My training started in last week of September and my half marathon was scheduled for first week of december, an exact 2 month period. I had a 10 k run coming up in first week of october. So the first 2 weeks were about getting me to run that 10k without breaking myself. But I fell ill, missed out on the event and an entire week of training. So post that it was 'start from scratch'. Because I was an amateur runner, my training became about getting across mental blocks of long distances, and running for duration rather than distance. According to the training plan I was supposed to run 4/5 days a week and maintain a log (essential for any aspiring long distance runner) and update it in a shared google doc. Also I was to increase my mileage gradually . So I started out with 23km per week and ramped up to 35 km per week. My runs were broken into easy runs of 3-5 km on weekdays (I had to go to work as well!) and longer i.e. 8-10 km runs on weekends. The longest distance I ran before the half marathon was 12km. So you can see the training never made me stretch myself beyond my physical fitness so that my body would break. It first of all aimed at getting me to a fitter level. It also concentrated on simulating the conditions of a longer run for my body to be able to learn and adapt. Within 3 weeks I could see that my aerobic system i.e my lungs and breathing had become much better. I had always run out of breath during runs, which used to compel me to take walking breaks to get my breath in control. Due to this short + long distance combination of running this behavior got better and now I felt like taking a walking break after 10 km on really good run days. The 2 month long training progressed and hit its peak 2 weeks before the half marathon. By that time I was half over my dread of longer distances and half tired of following the training routine. But it reduced in volume over the last 2 weeks before HM where I took it really easy and ran only 3/4 times a week.It was like preparing for a huge exam (I know its nerdy and hence cannot think of a better analogy) without caring for the results. Of course, I cared as I wanted to finish and had set myself these 3 goals before the training started:1. to finish the half marathon without killing myself2. to get a decent timing (below 3 hours)3. to be able to go to office the next day*I achieved all the 3 with this awesome training program by running potential which was designed for me and was very personal and took into consideration my abilities, limitations and running background. And that too at a very nominal cost!You can get all these benefits of running and realize your running potential just by following their facebook feed or twitter handle or even sign up for a training. You need not be a local.running potential fb page: https://www.facebook.com/MyRunningPotential?fref=tstwitter handle: https://twitter.com/RunPotential*In case you are wondering I was mobile and active post run. But once I hit the bed I did sleep for more than 12 hours at a stretch. I went to work the next day with a few sore muscles. And my half marathon official timing was 2.36 (2 hours 36 minutes 03 seconds).P.S. this is based entirely on my training experience.