Hello , after doing a few Parkruns I was toying with the idea of doing a half marathon.Is there an index of difficulty guide for races anywhere? I would like to pick one with minimal hillage! Any recommendations

Also what are the best training plans for them?

Hi Paddyboi,

I agree with Marge go for the 10k first as that is half a half marathon which is in turn double the distance of a Parkrun.....I think I said that ok, or perhaps I'm confusing myself.

Anyway it also depends where you are running at the moment and how far you wish to travel for races, if it's Norfolk then I would say you would have a fair chance of a flat race as opposed to Wales or Cornwall.

I'm not too familiar with Newmarket, Paddyboi, but I'm guessing you won't have too much hill training under your belt!

(I sneaked a look at your profile!)

Thanks for all the good advice, I think 1/2 marathons should be a long term goal, perhaps Peterbro` in October would be a good target. I intend to do a few 10k in the meantime...

So mileage, how much weekly mileage are people racking in,to get to do 21k comfortably...?

Paddyboi

I checked my log: in the 3 months leading up to my 1st HM at the end of September 2010, I had these mileages

July 36miles; August 36 miles; September 71 miles (includes 13 miles on race day).

Please bear in mind this was the holiday season ( I probably didn't run much over say 2-3 wks and I think I had a week off through injury of some sort while I sorted out my footware). I also focused on high intensity tempo runs rather than grinding out the miles, although I did run race distance once in training just so that I knew I could do it comfortably.

As a training plan I used an adapted version of the Runners World HM beginner/improver plan from their book Complete Guide to Running. When I felt strong I used the Improver's schedule; if I wasn't on top form I'd drop down to the Beginner's schedule. P.S the longest run suggested for the Improvers is 110 mins and both plans have you running just 3 days week so it is "do-able". 

I've since upped my mileage and managed 68 miles in January while en-route to the Reading HM at end March. I've kept up the running/racing through the winter with a few 5k (parkrun) and a 10k in December. Another 10k planned for early March - 3 wks before Reading.

To summarise: you can go straight for the long distances but my (preferred) route has been to teach my creaking body to run faster at shorter events and slowly increase distance - so 5k to 10k to HM and maybe full marathon in 2012.

Thankyou everyone for your fine advice.

My plan is do extra miles per week , building my long run on a weekend by 10% a week.

Book  some 10k`s , Cambourne  Cambs is probably going to be my first one.

And try and introduce a fortnightly bit of hill training ....

That should be enough for my short little legs!!!

Hello Rosslyn

Hope you got a good tan!

 By "over distance" you mean if you are planning a 10 k , do runs that take you past that? Say do a 12 k  run?

or a half marathon you  knocked out 14 miles ...! I suppose this gives you the confidence that you`ll complete the race?

Hell Martin

You win!