The goal: “Harder, better, faster, stronger”

Ever since I crossed the finish line of my first half-marathon, I’ve been promising myself I’d run another. That was three years ago. Work, laziness, Saturday nights out, House of Cards and laziness have gotten in the way of me signing up again.

But 2016 is my comeback year; I’m planning to run another halfmarathon this fall. Considering I jog eight kilometres every Sunday as well as indoor cycle, strength train and attempt every new workout trend imaginable (I’m a health editor, after all), I’m well on my way, according to Stanton. He says that every running program should consist of strength training (to build power), speed training and endurance training.

Endurance is my kryptonite, so I’ve upped my runs to three lowintensity jogs (which means I’m able to sing along to Florence + the Machine) a week. Every seven days, I will increase the distance of my longest run by 10 percent. “These runs are good base building,” says Colleen Parsons, head coach of the University of Calgary’s marathon program, noting that they help the mitochondria to better access oxygen. “It’s like building a house: The foundation comes with the low-intensity training, and then you put on a roof with the high-intensity training.”

By “high-intensity” she means speed work, like interval sprints (doing your best Usain Bolt impression and then recovering) and hills (selfexplanatory hell). The goal is to train my body to work more efficiently so when I return to my easy runs, I’ll be faster but expend the same energy— all the way across the finish line.