Welcome to Half Marathon 3, or HM3. This is a new program created for my recent book, Hal Higdon's Half Marathon Training. I designed HM3 to match my popular Marathon 3 program that features 3 days of running a week and 2 days of cross-training. It recognizes the fact that not all runners can handle 4, 5, 6 and especially not 7 days of running a week. We are all different and achieve success by various means. HM3 lasts 12 weeks aimed at the half marathon of your choice. In signing up for HM3, be sure to set the correct end date so all of the workouts fall into place for your goal race.

Monday in HM3 is always a day of rest to recover from the hard training on the weekend. Tuesdays and Thursdays are easy running days, conversational pace mostly. In between on Wednesdays, you cross train, the most popular form of cross-training being aerobic: cycling, swimming or even walking. Friday is another rest day with long runs on Saturdays and cross-training on Sundays, although you can flipflop those workouts for convenience.

For more information on HM3 along with a chart of all the workouts, visit my website, www.halhigdon.com. You will also find a full chapter on HM3 along with a lot of other advice in the Human Kinetics book, Hal Higdon's Half Marathon Training.