Oh hello, thanks for joining us on this Body and Soul podcast, Got a Healthy Ish. I'm your host of Felicity Harley. Now, if you are a regular listener of this podcast, you will know that I just completed my first half marathon. So I thought, listeners, I want to inspire you to do the same, or perhaps you've already done one and you need to do well, you want to do another.
One.
Joining me today is Nike head running coach and marathona Lydia O'Donnell. Now, she did help me across the line. She wrote my training plan and she joins us today from New Zealand to break down exactly what you need to consider before signing up to a half marathon, from training plans to the best strength based exercises and of course mindset essentials. Listening to Extra Healthy Ish as well, where Lydia answers your most pressing questions about running, you
can grab that wherever you get your podcasts. But yeah, let's thank you for joining us on healthy Show.
Are you? I'm good, Thank you and it's an honor to be here. Thank you so much for having me on.
Now we are focusing specifically on the half marathon today. How many have you done? Do you even know?
I actually don't know how many halves are run, but quite a few. I really love the half marathon distance. I find it like a really good challenging distance, but it's not so tough as the full obviously, so I really like it. But I've been running them for about fifteen years. I've run half marathons that are flat and fast on the road and some halves where they're more trail based or hillien and it's every race is different, so I've enjoyed them all.
I think you know your answer there that it is a doable distance, and I, well, now having done one, I absolutely agree. So for anyone listening who thinks I don't think I can do it, or maybe I can, what are some considerations that we should lock it before we even start with anything else.
Well, I think finding a distance or a race sorry that actually excites you. So finding a particular course that you get excited about. You want to feel motivated when you're signing up to that particular race, and then you know, things you really need to think about is how long you're going to have to be able to train for that distance. If you're someone who's completely new to running, you're obviously going to need longer to train towards the distance.
Maybe if you're someone who's more experienced with running halves, you might not need as much time, But having the right tools to get you there is just so important. So finding a plan that really works for you to build you towards the distance in a really safe and sustainable way is crucial. And within the Nike Run Club app, you can actually get programs that will help you work towards the half marathon distance. Not only is it a specific training program that's telling you to get there, but
having actual guided runs. So we have audio guided runs with a Nike Run Club that actually talk you through the different sessions that you need to do in order to build up your fitness and your endurance and your conditioning to running to be able to reach that distance. And it's just such a great way to just plug in your ears. It's almost like a podcast where you can just listen to a coach or an athlete or even a celebrity kind of just motivate you and inspire
you to get through that particular run. And so, yeah, definitely finding the right training and the right tools is essential for you to get there. And then I think the last one, which I personally find super helpful when i'm training, and I know a lot of women do in particular, is having a community around you that's really like supportive and we'll be there for you through the ups and downs of training and really just yah support
you to get to that start line as well. So as the FEMI co founder, I'm obviously so passionate about these safe and supportive communities for women, and I just go along to those community runs that we host around a stream earlier in New Zealand, and most of the women at these runs are training towards something. It might not necessarily be a half or a full marathon, but it's a particular goal that they've put in their calendar and they've just got this group of women around them that's
getting them there. So it's so important to have the right tools and the right people.
Talk to us a bit about the train you know, managing between the endurance run, the speed run, the tempo runs and recovery, because there's different types of runs that we should be doing to train for half.
Yes, let's talk some running lingo.
Yes, so you have to hit around that before you start training.
Definitely, it's so important to understand why you need to do different runs across the week and what those different runs are and what they kind of mean. So that's why having a program is so important, because it will really structure your week so that you're pushing when you need to push, but also pulling back when you need to. And not to get too technical on you, but perodization
in running training is really important. It allows you to make the most of your rest and recovery when you need it to ultimately allow your body to push when you should be pushing. And if you parodise your training not just across a week, but across an entire training block, it should allow you to peak when it really matters, which is race day. And so let's take it back to a week. Across a week, you should have a couple of tougher, harder sessions and then most your other
running should be relatively easy. Those hard sessions may consist of a speed run and a long run, so for a half those are kind of the two crucial ones to get in. Within a speed run, you can do all different types of speed sessions, so yes, like you mentioned, tempo runs, interval sessions fart lik sessions fart lick is
Swedish for speedplay. But ultimately there is purpose behind all of them, and understanding the purpose is really important not just to like motivate you to do it, but also to execute it as it should be planned program and so something like a tempo run is really just pushing your heart rate to a certain level and trying to
sustain that over a period of time. An example that might be go and run twenty minutes at half marathon pace, and so your heart rate might set somewhere like one sixted one seventy beats per minute, whereas an interval session might be saying, go and run as not as fast as you can, but you might be reaching like five k or kink pays for like two or three minutes and then resting for a minute, and ultimately your heart will be fluctu at heart rate will flutter a weight
across the entire session. So there's definitely like purpose behind all of those sessions, and it's key to like learn that and then execute on that across your training. But it's also super complicated. So that's why having a program like within the Nike Run Club app can actually provide you the specific guidance on what you should do and when you should do it.
How important is strength training for building your body or getting your body ready for half.
Strength can help so much it's hard to be able to manage all of the training, and so I would almost say sacrifice one of your easy rounds if you don't have the time to do both running and strength training to get your strength training in strength is not just there to build muscle and build power and build speed. It definitely does all of that, but it also helps
to prevent injury. And we know that running is a high impact sport that takes a lot out of your body, and if you're not able to withstand that impact, you can get injured, and that's where we see things like ITB syndrome, or knee pains or tendon issues. So strength training can actually prevent all of that from happening. So I usually suggest athletes to do one, if not two sessions of strength training throughout the week along side they're running. But if you don't have the time, I would say
at least get one in. If you need a sacrifice a.
Round full body or specific focus on the legs.
I'm going to sound kind of boring here, but it is monotonous. Really specific run strength training that will help you the best. So within the Nike Training Club at we actually have a bunch of different running specific strength training workouts that you can do, and those will guide you on exactly the key movements that you should do in order to help your running. If running is a priority, then you can definitely go and test a whole heap
of different workouts within the act. But if running is and you want to focus on that half hour con distance, go and even just search running within Nike Training Club and a whole bunch of different strength training workouts, but also yogas like stretching in flexibility sessions are there as well. Mobility is obviously a real crucial one for runners. We're stiff and it's important to stretch to so it's nice to have that.
Yeah, definitely hip open its long live hip openers.
Yeah, we did. I definitely need to work on that.
What's the most exciting place you've ever run? All the most exciting run around the world.
Oh, that's such a good question. I have so many different races that I would answer you as an answer to this question, because I just have had such great experiences across different races, but I think the New York Marathon's pretty incredible. Oh yeah, I did that. It wasn't an eighteen and that was pretty amazing. And then I did do another. It was an ultra marathon relay race from La to Vegas. Fun. It's about five one hundred and fifty k's that's split between six people, and that
was an unreal experience. But I also have to say the Nike Malviourn Marathon Festival because it was my first marathon and it was just such an amazing experience and there's nothing quite light finishing a distance for the first time ever and feeling good and proud of yourself, and so that one will definitely stick with me forever. Yeah.
Well, of course that's my favor. It's pretty epic running into the MCG that is amazing. Yeah, Lydia, thank you so much for joining us on Healthy Ish.
Thanks for having me.
Oh come on, listeners, put it on your list for next year. You can do a half marathon. I'm going to do another one. I know I'm one of those people. But if you've never done one, if you can barely run five k or perhaps you have done one and you need a bit of motivation for another one. We
can all do this together. Any hope Lydia inspired you if she did, tell us rate and review of this episode, of course, if you have any ideas for an upcoming EP, just DM me at Felicity Harley Hey to bodyansoul dot com dot you for anything else, follow us on socials, grab our print edition which is out in your local Sunday paper, and until tomorrow, stay healthy ish