Training FOLLOWING a half-marathon (Read 401 times)

Hi everyone, I have been a recreational runner for awhile. For the past three years or so I've run 3mi 2-3 times a week. I recently decided to run a half-marathon on May 3rd. I'm not racing it, I'm not even necessarily trying to run the whole thing. To prepare for it I've been increasing my mileage and I'm currently up to about 25mi/week and am at 6mi for my long runs. I feel great. No pains and at the end of my "long" runs I have energy to run faster and further. Ok. So once the half marathon is over and I've recovered, I'd like to train appropriately for a full marathon in October. My questions is what should my training be like following the half-marathon? Should I drop down to lower mileage? What should my long runs look like? Basically how long should I run easy following the half before I begin building miles again? Thanks in advance

Hi everyone, I have been a recreational runner for awhile. For the past three years or so I've run 3mi 2-3 times a week. I recently decided to run a half-marathon on May 3rd. I'm not racing it, I'm not even necessarily trying to run the whole thing. To prepare for it I've been increasing my mileage and I'm currently up to about 25mi/week and am at 6mi for my long runs. I feel great. No pains and at the end of my "long" runs I have energy to run faster and further. Ok. So once the half marathon is over and I've recovered, I'd like to train appropriately for a full marathon in October. My questions is what should my training be like following the half-marathon? Should I drop down to lower mileage? What should my long runs look like? Basically how long should I run easy following the half before I begin building miles again? Thanks in advance

IMO, if you're not racing the HM and you're just trying to build up the mileage in order to complete a HM, you won't need to change a whole lot. You might want to take a day off or two if you're feeling rough, and then just keep training. I wouldn't cut back mileage at all, but instead, build upon it and keep up a great base throughout the summer. When August hits, after building consistent mileage, then I'd worry about tweaking. Build the base over the summer first, though.