The opinions expressed in this article are the writer’s own and do not reflect the views of Her Campus.

This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at Washington chapter.

Note: I am not a licensed or trained professional. This article is meant to be about my experience rather than my health advice. Please take this into consideration while reading.

My athletic training only goes as far as playing sports in high school. Beyond that, I have no experience what so ever about how to train. I also hated running growing up, running a mile was extremely difficult for me, but now I am fully capable of running 6-7 miles nonstop. By no means am I perfect at training, but I recognize that I have a lot of growing and learning to do.

I loosely follow Nike’s Half-Marathon Training Plan while also adding yoga and strength-training. Here is what my weekly workouts look like. The times and distance for each run varies each week as well.

I’d be lying if I said I didn’t miss at least one day each week. For me, I’m okay with that because my training is based on how much I can push myself physically and whether or not I feel good. When you’re training, especially when you are just starting out, you need to give yourself some grace because not a lot of people have ran a half-marathon.

I’ve been running or focusing more on my cardio for about a year now but have been training for a half-marathon for 2-3 months. Here is what I’ve learned so far as a beginning runner:

go slow on easy runs: Easy runs whether they are long or not, is a great workout for active recovery. Your easy runs are supposed to be easy for a reason, you want to build your endurance for the time that you run rather than the speed at which you are running at. Regardless if you sprint, run, or walk a half-marathon, everyone ends up with a medal.
warm-ups & cool downs: When I first started running, I disregarded warm-ups and cool downs which led to many days of soreness and muscle pain that caused me to take a break from running. Warm-ups, especially dynamic warm-ups helped with my injury prevention and lessened the soreness that my body takes on. For cool downs, I tend to just listen to the tightness in my muscles so I focus on stretching my hip flexors, calves, ankles, and hamstrings. I also like to use Yoga with Adriene’s Runner’s Cool Down Sequence.
Focus on how long you can run for rather than pace: First starting out, it should jut be about focusing on the endurance of your runs rather than meeting a certain pace or miles/km. Once you have a foundation of understanding where you are capable of growing, then I think it would be great to look at pace and mileage. Starting out by focusing on how you feel is a great entryway into bettering your speed and endurance.
Recovery: Rest days are extremely important because, in my opinion, your recovery is your lifeline. Getting the appropriate amount of sleep and eating enough are some of the recovery habits that are huge in your running journey. Without giving your body the time to relax, you are only hurting your opportunities of getting better.
Size up or getting fitted for shoes: I’m dealing with a lot of pain in my upper foot area along with developing blisters from friction. My shoes are a size too small and therefore have been causing a bit of a delay on my recovery. I would recommend not only sizing up or getting fitted, but lacing your shoes up differently, or getting blister preventing socks with compression.

I still have so much to learn and some things I would like to focus on is my eating habits. I don’t want to follow a strict plan but I would like to be more aware of how many calories I take in along with the kinds of foods that I’m eating. I would like to eat more whole foods rather than processed foods, which I feel like has gotten better.

Wherever you are in your running or fitness journey, just know to give yourself a bit of grace if this has been something more difficult for you. You’ve got this!

Here is some of my favorite workout gear:

Clothes: I got a lot of my leggings from target, my tops from Athleta, sports bras and shorts from Nike, and my biker shorts from Gymshark.

Shoes: Hoka Clifton 9

Bags: Belt Bag and Osprey 1.5 Hydration Vest

Socks: Moisture Wicking Socks

Energy: C4 Sport Pre-Workout