Tag Archives: Free half marathon training

Go Oakland - Train with WOW

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    The WOW Team is an official training club for the 2011 Oakland Running Festival offering training for all three events.

The ORF includes 3 races - a 5K (3.1 miles), half marathon (13.1 miles flat and fast), and a full marathon (26.2 challenging miles).

WOW Training starts soon and you can join any time for the marathon, half marathon, and 5K.

Time to Get Started! Join Now and Train until March for $99.

The WOW Team is a club that offers ongoing workouts in the East Bay on Wednesdays and Sundays, for women only, every week of the year and Saturday workouts in the Peninsula/SF Area. WOW chooses certain events to train for and the Oakland Running Festival - Marathon, Half Marathon and 5K is one of those choices.

You can sign up and start training anytime between now and December 31, 2010 for the same price. Training includes weekend workouts and weekday track (not mandatory but very helpful), online weekly news and training pep talks with certified running coach and personal trainer, Stephanie Atwood.

You are also eligible for WOW Team discounts for the race itself, a post-race meeting area in the Celebration Village after the race, and more!

If you are ready to go for it, sign up now! Sign up early! Start training now!

Price goes up to $129.00 (plus one time application fee of $29) on January 1 for the Oakland Running Festival. Your membership allows you to 'roll over" into the SFM Training for $24.95/month and stay at that price for as long as you are a member.

*Member Discounts on races, bootcamps and other special events

For your racing success and injury prevention WOW requests that:

  • You have experience with a 5K or 10K race before trying a half marathon or marathon (you can fit in a 5K race while training with us if a half marathon is your goal)

  • You have experience with a half marathon before attempting a full marathon (start training now and you can fit in a half marathon between now and March if the Oakland Marathon is your goal.)

  • You have run for a minimum of a year or train in the walk/run technique for your first full marathon (the run/walk technique is a way to increase distance and minimize injury. An average pace of 9 minutes/mile is attainable with run/walk so you don't have to think SLOW! with this technique)

    • Come to a WOW Team potluck/orientation/get to know us meeting In Oakland on Saturday, October 9, co-hosted by Go WOW Team and Alive Chiropractic. Starts 5:30 and will include a meet and greet time, cheers and kudos for our current trainees in fall races (San Jose Rock'n'Roll, Nike Women's, Long Beach), and opportunity to participate in the upcoming relay or marathon at CIM on December 5, AND a chance to talk over the training program for the whole Oakland Running Festival - all 3 events - The Marathon, The Half Marathon, and The Twilight 5K.

    Join us! For more information, a free, daily, training program, or to register, please request more information in the form to the right. Get ready to get fit and have fun with the WOW Team!

    *All new members will be charged a one time processing fee of $29. Please look at our page for details. Click on this link

    The WOW Team encourages fitness, through running and walking, for all women, all sizes, all ages, all abilites, all year round. Join us!

    Four Weeks to Go for Your Half Marathon. Are you Over Training?

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    The gradual increase of your long distance workouts should create confidence and an easy transition from one week to the next. If you are feeling overly tired or dragging your tail, give yourself a break! This may be your body telling you that you are over training.

    How can you tell? Here are a few signals:

    1.  Take your morning, resting pulse. Is it normal or elevated?

    2.  Do you feel tired even after sleeping?

    3.  Do your legs and body still feel heavy after a 5 - 10 minute warm-up?

    If your pulse is higher than normal; if your feeling tired even after sleeping; if you can't seem to get into a rhythm with your workout but feel sluggish and HEAVY, you may be over training.

    Are you working out every day?

    Are you running every day or 6 out of 7 days a week?

    Are you getting injured?

    If you answered yes to any of the questions, you may be over training.

    What to do about this? Initially, give yourself a few days off. Recovery is an essential part of training. You may need more recovery time that you've allowed.

    Eat wise; sleep well; stop being obsessive about your training for 3 days or so (in a row) and see if this helps. It's possible that it will do the trick and you can get back into the final weeks of training refreshed and with confidence.

    Half Marathon Training - Four Weeks to Go

    Monday - REST
    Tuesday - Strength and Core Training 1 hour minimum
    Wednesday Track Workout - 10 – 20 min warm-up, 3X1600(400m RI), 10 minutes cool-down, stretch
    Thursday - REST
    Friday - 2 miles easy, 2 miles at tempo pace, 2 miles easy
    Saturday - Non running activity or REST
    Sunday - 12 miles steady plus 1 mile (10 minutes warm-up jog/walk)

    About the Author: Stephanie Atwood, M.A. is a writer, award winning speaker, and fitness professional. 

    Coach Stephanie, a long distance running coach and personal trainer founded the WOW Team, a women's running and walking group in the Greater Bay Area. Go WOW Team - Fit Women of the World meets throughout the Bay Area, several times each week. Drop-ins are encouraged. For the schedule of workouts go to http://gowowteam.com/calendar  or visit the WOW Team Home Page at http://gowowteam.com  or search for Go WOW Team on facebook or twitter.

    All women are invited to join.

    The WOW Team encourages fitness, through running and walking, for all women, all sizes, all ages, all abilites, all year round. Join us!

    SFM Half Marathon Training

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    Six Weeks to Go! The San Francisco Marathon's half marathon is on July 25.

    The end is getting closer! You are strong and confident at this point if you have been following the training. Let's go through a bit more clarification on the run/walk technique for training.

    While this training method works just fine if you run or jog your entire workout, the concept we're following advocates that you give yourself a break in form by walking at regular intervals. This doesn't mean that you will run/walk your race (although you certainly can). This method suggests that, as you are increasing your mileage, you are allowing your body a recovery break, on a regular basis. Double protection to keep you uninjured. When you run your race, if you want to "run" the whole distance, go for it!

    For example, if you started with a 2/2 (2 minutes walking, 2 minutes running) rhythm, try adding another minute to your running, making it 2/3, or dropping a minute of walking, making it 1/2. Either way is decreasing your walking and increasing the time running. See how it feels. Keep tweaking as you feel stronger and are picking up mileage uninjured. If you start feeling twinges of pain, head back to your previous comfort rhythm for a week or two and try to "up" the intensity of the running portion without changing the time increments. See how that feels. 

    6 Weeks to Go! Week of June 14 - 20, 2010

    Monday - REST
    Tuesday - Strength and core training minimum 60 minutes
    Wednesday - Track Workout for 60 minutes or 4 miles, 40 minutes hard pace/tempo plus 5 min warm-up, 10 min cool down
    Thursday -  REST
    Friday - 60 minutes or 6 miles hard alternating 5 minutes hard, 5 minutes steady, start and end with 5 minutes easy
    Saturday - Cross Train 1 Hour or REST
    Sunday - 12 miles steady pace or 120 minutes, whichever comes first (including 5 min easy warm-up) 

    ALWAYS STRETCH AFTERWARD!

    About the Author: Stephanie Atwood, M.A. is a writer, award winning speaker, and fitness professional. 

    Coach Stephanie, a long distance running coach and personal trainer founded the WOW Team, a women's running and walking group in the Greater Bay Area. Go WOW Team - Fit Women of the World meets throughout the Bay Area, several times each week. Drop-ins are encouraged. For the schedule of workouts go to http://gowowteam.com/calendar  or visit the WOW Team Home Page at http://gowowteam.com  or search for Go WOW Team on facebook or twitter.

     The WOW Team is training for the SF Half and SF Progressive Marathon. All women are invited to join.

    Train for the SFM Half Marathon

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    Only Three Runs a Week!

    This is a tough one for those addicted runners to buy into but it works!

    In Run Less, Run Faster, Authors Bill Pierce, Scott Murr, and Ray Moss explain the benfits of "less is more". For experienced runners, you add quality to your workout instead of injury-prone extra miles. For relative newcomers you limit the amount of miles you train, keeping yourself from the likelihood of high impact and over-use injuries. Sound good? It is!

    The difficulty comes in the intensity of each workout. Each week you need to run with a purpose. Workout 1 practices all out speed. Workout 2 adds mid-distance at a tough pace. Workout 3 works on distance and endurance, based on your past running experience. Each workout has a specific purpose. Additionally, you are expected to cross-train on some of the other days with rest also being essential. How much rest depends on your experience level and your recovery. Please refer to the article about Resting Heart Rates. You're half way there!

    May 24-30 - Goal - Build Strength and Endurance
    Monday - REST
    Tuesday - Cross train, focusing on core strength and upper body conditioning plus flexibility
    Wednesday - Track Workout or 3 miles or 30 minutes hard pace/tempo run plus 5 - 10 min. warm-up
    Thursday - REST or Cross Train
    Friday - 4 miles or 40 minutes tempo pace plus 5 minutes warm-up
    Saturday - Cross Train 1 Hour or REST
    Sunday - 10 miles or 2 hours steady whichever comes first (5 mins warm-up, 110 mins steady, 5 mins easy)

    SF Half Marathon Training. Week 3

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    At this point in your training you are 14 weeks away from the target. This is a time to focus on faster/harder workouts while still minimizing workout times. You are still establishing your base.

    As you work through the days, try to cover more mileage in your 30 minutes. If you got to corner A last week, try to get to corner B (a bit further) this week. If you ran 3 miles last week in 30 minutes, try to run 3.1 miles in 30 minutes this week. Pick up your speed a bit, for a limited amount of time. This will help you improve while keeping you from getting injured by too much too soon - a very common injury scenario.

    As always, try to stretch at the end of your workout and be sure to warm-up before getting into the meat of the day's training. Next week we'll go over foam rolling for stretching and injury prevention.

    April 19-25, 2010 SF Half Marathon Training for Participants who already have a base
    Goal: Continue Building Your Base

      Monday: REST
      Tuesday: 3 miles or 30 minutes moderate pace
      Wednesday: Track Workout or 3 miles or 30 minutes hard pace/tempo run*
      Thursday: REST
      Friday: 30 - 60 minutes of hard strength/core/flexibility training
      Saturday: Cross Train up to 1 Hour or REST (Low Impact - swimming, cycling, walking, strength , core, flexibility workout)
      Sunday: 70 minutes (5 - 10 min. warm-up, 50 - 60 minutes tempo, mimic 10K race pace when possible (ie. 10 minutes hard, jog a minute, 10 minutes hard, etc. for 60 minutes) 5 min. cool down

    Total time walking or running _______________

    *3 miles or 30 minutes means to do whichever takes longer. If you do 3 miles in 60 minutes, that's your workout. If you do 3 miles in 24 minutes, keep going for 30 minutes. If you have questions about the training contact CoachStephanie@gowowteam.com

    * No specific results are guaranteed and all participants should have an OK from their doctor saying that rigorous exercise is OK.

    Be sure to send your comments or questions.

    The WOW Team is training for the SF Half and SF Progressive Marathon. All women are invited to join in.