Half Marathon Training Plan for Beginners

I've talked a little about my struggle with health and fitness on the blog, here and here. In the past few months I've been working on making my health a priority (lets face it, I'm not getting any younger) and focusing on getting in more exercise. 

When my sister mentioned she was going to sign up for the Disney Avengers Half Marathon in November, I jumped at the chance to join her. We ran our first 1/2 Marathon together back in 2010 and it was so helpful having someone to train with and especially to keep each other motivated during the race whenever one of us was struggling. 

I knew this was exactly what I needed to stay motivated with exercise. Plus, I hope it will be something fun that my sister and I can do together and bring us closer. And as it turns out, our cousin and friend will be joining us as well! So in addition to helping me stay motivated to exercise regularly, it's going to be a family weekend in Disneyland! 

Since I hadn't been running regularly prior to signing up for this race, I wanted to plan a beginners training guide. I looked around and found a few 12 week training programs that seemed doable and used those as a guide to make my own training plan. Since it's only a 12 week guide, I technically don't need to start until August. My plan until then is to get in at least 3 runs each week. So that by the time I start my 12 week training guide, I am able to easily run 4 miles at a 9 minute mile pace. I can always adjust my training plan come August if I feel I need to get in more mileage. But for now, this feels like a comfortable starting point. I will also be incorporating cross training (XT) because I've read that is very important for race training. 

So far, I've been running 3 miles a few times a week. I'm pretty slow, between 10 and 11 minute miles, but have already seen improvement in my time. My last 1/2 marathon I completed in 2 hours and 12 minutes, so I really want to beat that time. I know that if I focus on the training and fueling my body during the next few months, I can do it! 

Of course, another aspect I'm excited about is dressing up for the race! Since my nephew loves superheros, I am excited to run in costume on race day. Any ideas for what to wear? I think Superman or Batman would be classic and fun. But I also love the idea of Captain America so I could wear my best red, white & blue gear! Any fun costume ideas for me?

If you have any tips for training for a half marathon I'd love to hear them. It's been 6 years since my last race, so I am definitely rusty. I will keep you up to date on how my training is going and be sure to share a recap afterwards! 

You can see my training guide below, I made a fun graphic too in case you want to pin it for future reference!