Running a Half Marathon - A Beginners Guide

Running a Half Marathon - A Beginners Guide

Are you deciding whether to run a half-marathon but don€t know where to start? Perhaps you€re a complete running novice or maybe you run regularly €“ whichever you are you want to take your training that next step to completing your first half marathon and this is the place to start!

Running a half-marathon takes weeks of preparation and training. It makes demands on your body, free time, diet and potentially, relationships. So is it worth it?

Of course it is! Completing a half-marathon is a life-changing event, an achievement revered the world over.

The Half Marathon Guide gives you the catalyst to begin your journey, a comprehensive yet manageable guide to help you on your path to half-marathon success.

€ Preparing for a half-marathon
€ Training explained
€ Nutrition and fuel for training and race-day
€ Race-day tips
€ Comprehensive ten-week training programme
€ Post-race recovery
€ Your running future
It gives a detailed week-by-week analysis of the suggested ten-week training programme. This not only explains the various stages of your training but also explores some of the more common feelings and realities of such a regime. Knowing that other people are feeling the same way is so important after all!

Planning nutrition €“ what to eat and when. In these modern, busy times, trying to eat food is sometimes a struggle in itself. Trying to stick to a plan that is balanced and which supports your training whilst not giving in to the ever-present temptations found on every street corner is near impossible, we talk about the best diet for running a half marathon.

There€s advice on motivating yourself, preparing yourself mentally for the challenges ahead and how to not lose faith - whatever your training and life throws at you! It gives details about your race day with a handy list of questions that will need to be answered before the day arrives. To accept that some runs will just feel €˜off€ and you need to put it down to experience, nothing more!

The importance of rest days and giving your body time to heal. Having a regime is essential, it is not a good idea to just push yourself further and further each time. In fact, this is a sure-fire way of getting an injury and potentially ruining your dreams of running a half marathon.

The final question is what next? The obvious answer would be another half-marathon or even to go for the full marathon. This book gives you ideas of where to take your new-found love of running, from running clubs, to new challenges, to advice on enhancing your rest and recuperation strategies.

Note from the author
Running a half marathon is a big commitment. The hardest part of this commitment is making the decision to embark upon this life-enhancing mission in the first place. My book helps you make that decision and tells you exactly what is needed to be successful.

Reading through the reams of information available on the internet and elsewhere is overwhelming and can get frustrating. I wrote my Marathon and Half Marathon Guides to give you the relevant information whilst also giving you the confidence to embrace the challenge of running your first race, and hopefully running many more in the future.

If you have ever asked yourself, €œI need a challenge, a goal that will change my life forever€, you have made the first step into completing a long distance race. You probably now have many more questions, all of which are answered in my book.

I hope you enjoy my Guide book and I wish you every success in the future.

Dan Stevens