How do you pick a training plan? (Read 1216 times)

Some background first. I've been running about 2.5 months now. I tried running before about 2 years ago and I was getting up to about 6 mile runs before I stopped for an extended period. I did my first race about a month ago, the Nike Run Hit Wonder 5 mile. I finished that faster that I was expecting and was pretty happy about it. No real training plan, just running when I could. So I signed up for a half marathon on Feb 2nd, Super Bowl Sunday. It's the Huntington Beach Half. It's the first half I'll be running. Now, I have about 13 weeks to train for the half marathon. I've been reading all these training plans and I can't figure out which one to use. There are aspects about all of them that I like. My goal is to finish it around 2:10, a 10min pace. I did the 5 mile race at a pace slightly faster than that and I didn't have much time to train for that and I had ITB issues which I think I've since resolved. I like Galloway's run/walk method because I did a variation of it on my last race and it worked well for me. I like the Furman Institute (FIRST) plan because the variety of the workouts are interesting and I like the 3x a week runs which for me are more realistic. I would like to try the low HR training though I don't think I have enough time right now to build up to a pace I would like and I get really impatient for the slow runs. So now that I've rambled on enough, how do I pick or do I even need to pick one? I'm thinking about putting them all together and trying a mish mash of things. All these plans have me confused, help!

I'm doing a FIRST plan for my marathon, but found the interval and tempo runs to be too hard and the long run perfect. So I took the interval and tempo workouts from Fitzgerald's new Brain Training program and substituted them on those two days of the week. FIRST plan is great, in my opinion, so long as you like cross-training and don't mind working hard. There are no recovery runs - all runs are challenging, so if you're one who likes an easy run once in a while, it might be kind of tough. For my first half-marathon, I basically just kept everything the same and snuck my long run on the weekend up a mile at a time... that'll do wonders without overcomplicating things.

I think the best thing to do is read as many as possible look at them and modify them to fit what you want to do. I personally took hal higdon and modified it to fit my schedule and goals. Then used McMullen race calculater for pace. I have made most of my goals and have had to adjust my training in the process. Have read others and just choose the one that best fit my goals and could be adjusted to my shedule and goals as they changed.

do I even need to pick one?

Meant to say in my first post that I would pick a plan and follow it. Galloway, Higdon, Pfitzinger et al have worked with thousands of runners, and the plans are time tested and proven.

I'm a year long disciple of the Runner's World Smart Coach. You would take the time of your 5 mile race and plug it in to get your training plan for your half-marathon. All I can say, is when I stuck to the program I exceeded expectations. When I strayed from it, I still did well, but not as well as the other races. But from what I hear from the RW's forum Hal's program uses a similar formula. One more note about these training plans. The easy seems real easy. But they are that way for a reason. And from my experience, and from my converted subjects, it works.

Thanks for all the great replies. I've decided to just come up with my own plan after reading all these different plans. They all have a basic structure of runs during the week and then a long run on the weekend. So I'm trying to building up my runs during the week to 6 miles and then increase my long runs on the weekend around a mile a week depending on how I feel. I've been more focused on building up the miles and not worrying about the time so much and that has really helped me to enjoy running more and I've just naturally gotten faster from the extra miles I've logged. I'm pretty confident that I'll finish the half marathon without any issues, I'll have to see how my pacing is when the date gets closer to see if my 10min pace is within reach.

Another book you might consider taking a look at is Bob Glover's "Competitive Runners Handbook". He goes into a lot of detail about each type of training run (intervals, tempo, pace, easy, recovery, hills, etc), why you do them, and how and at what pace. There is a chapter devoted to designing your own training plan and how to do it. There are chapters on race strategies, planning for races, recovery from races, running in hot and cold weather - the works. He has ready made plans for training for 5k, 10k, HM, and Marathon, for several different levels of runners (beginniner to local champion).