Sub 2 hour half marathon

After being out for the season with a grade 2 hamstring strain, as I began to slowly increase my mileage each week to ease myself back into it I quickly grew hungry for another event to sign up for and realised there would soon be one of the most famous races in the UK right on my new front doorstep; The Great Scottish Run, 30th September 2018. So after a bit of manipulation (who could say no to this face??) I'm now entered with a flatmate and a friend of mine, one eager, one still needing maybe a little push.

The route is pretty flat, starting in the centre of Glasgow where I attend University in George Square and taking us up around the green and along the Clyde, a beautiful river which divides the city into North and South. I'm thrilled to be training for a new challenge, and after proving to myself previously that I can cover the distance, I now want to prove that I can push it a little faster without dying or collapsing after the first 5k.

Great Scottish Run Half Marathon course map 2018

After no solid training for 3 months, it's pretty frustrating looking back on where you were in terms of mileage this time last year, but having kept a fair level of fitness up at the gym (a blog post on maintaining fitness through injury will be up soon) it's been fairly easy to get back into and tackle some harder workouts and long runs. I'm lucky enough to live in an area of the UK abundant with wildlife and footpaths so I can easily get lost (usually literally) in my runs while enjoying the scenery and gaining some serious fitness at the same time.

So if anyone has any advice on training for faster times it'd be greatly appreciated, I'd like to get a little discussion going on the best methods. I'm starting with the time of 2 hours 15 minutes from my first ever race and want to come in some time around 1 hour 45 minutes for the upcoming race, which is a big goal but an almost achievable one?? After the little research I've done it looks like a combination of long runs, recovery runs and some speed training like interval, fartlek training etc. is what I'm going to be up to until September, which is definitely enough to keep up with considering I'm away for 5 weeks of the summer. Yoga has been helping my hamstring recovery little by little but it's time to visit a specialist to see what's what as it definitely hasn't made the process in term of flexibility and power that it should have by now.

A wee picture of my recovery yoga, because who doesn't wanna see a picture of my bum in the air

Wish me luck!!
Helen xx