Building to the Alton Towers Half

The Alton Towers Half is 13.1 miles on the 15th of November, which by my count gives me eighteen weeks to get from “just ran 5 miles” to “can run 13.1 without falling apart.” That’s the whole plan, laid out on the Training page: four runs a week, one of them a long run that grows most weeks and steps back on a cutback week every three or four.

Right now that’s three easy runs and a long run, nothing structured beyond distance and pace. Base phase is about building the habit and the mileage before anything else — no tempo runs, no intervals, just showing up four times a week and letting the long run get a little longer each time it’s not a cutback week.

The long run is the one I watch. It’s gone 6 miles, then 7, and this week it steps up to 8 — the furthest I’ll have run by some distance. The plan tops out at 12 miles for the longest training run, which leaves a gap to the 13.1 on race day. That gap is deliberate: the taper exists so the legs are fresher on the day than they’ve been all block, and the last mile and change gets covered on adrenaline and crowd noise rather than more training miles.

I’ll keep this page updated as the weeks tick over — what’s actually happening, not just what the plan says should be happening.