Long Beach 1/2 Marathon Training Plan

I am a Long Beach native.  I was born and raised in the beautiful beach town, moved to New York (which is now my 2nd home) for four fabulous years during college, and am now back in the LBC.  What can I say, there's no place like home.


Needless to say, I'm incredibly excited to run the Long Beach half marathon on October 17 since it's in my hometown!!  On top of that, I will complete the CA Dreamin' Racing Series too!!  A majority of the 1/2 marathon course is along the beach path which is where I run a lot on my own, so I'm looking forward to experiencing it from a race perspective.


After running the San Francisco 1/2 on July 25, I decided to give myself two weeks before starting my training for Long Beach.  I wanted the first week to rest and make sure my knee is healed and ready to go, and the second week to get back into a routine with some easy runs.  Using SmartCoach on RunnersWorld.com as a base plan, I built a 10-week training plan that I think will push me without killing me.  Basically, I'm running 4 days a week with my long runs on Sunday, which will allow me ample rest and recovery time.  I really wanted the recovery days too because for the first time I'm incorporating tempo runs into my plan!  I never did a tempo run during my training for Surf City or San Francisco, so I'm excited for it.  In a nutshell my weeks will look like:


Mondays - Rest
Tuesdays - Easy run
Wednesdays - Rest of cross train
Thursdays - Tempo run/speedwork
Fridays - Easy run
Saturdays - Rest or cross train
Sundays - Long run


I left myself the option to cross train on rest days if I feel so inclined.  We all have those days where we feel like we need to get out and work out.  So without any further adieu, here is my plan:

Here is the key for some of the abbreviations:

I'm so excited to start training on Monday and I can't wait for October 17!!!

xoxo