Hal Higdon’s Racing Training Plans Are Now Available in This App
When I ran my first marathon, I got my workout plan from a trainer at a local running store. But when I was ready for the next challenge – I think it was a half marathon the next year – a runner friend brought me up to a classic online source for training plans: halhigdon.com .
Higdon is a trainer and writer and has posted simple and well-explained workout plans on his website for years. If you pay, you can receive email reminders and online tools to help you follow your plan. But if you just scroll down a bit on each plan’s page, you get all the details, including a chart that shows all of your workouts with mileage and goal for each run.
I am happy to print the diagram and work with it; we have already established that I dislike paper pencils and workout logs . But a few months ago, Hal’s plans, even the free versions, are available through a handy app called Run With Hal (free for iOS and Android).
As before, you’ll need a paid account (in this case, $ 6.99 / month or $ 59.99 / year) to track detailed statistics and access premium features. But even the free stuff is great here. Enter your race date, distance, target time and days you prefer to run, and the app will plan your workouts.
Unlike some running apps that simply tell you the set time or mileage, these workouts contain a little reading material to explain the workout and provide some guidance and tips on how to get the most out of it. For example, I told the app that I wanted to run a marathon, and one of the first easy runs was accompanied by a note that asked me to find a route about three miles long and then not track my pace, because the point of running today is to stay relaxed and not to think. above this. Meanwhile, Saturday’s long run was accompanied by uplifting conversations about how and why to keep pace. It seems that the application is really designed to help you achieve the goals that are important to you, while other applications that work often do not need advice, but are committed to tracking.
It’s up to you to choose the right target pace for your race, but you will get the recommended pace after each run. You can only glimpse the future for a week or two, because training needs to be adjusted based on what you report in post-run checks. However, they appear to be in line with the plans on the website, so you can still browse through them to get an idea of what you are signing up for.
If I was preparing for the next marathon, I would probably use this app – and that’s high praise from someone who often chooses not to use the app at all.