Training for a half marathon requires a lot of preparation, you’ll be improving your fitness and losing weight along with making yourself a much healthier person.

Some of this time you’ll be able to train with someone else which is great for both the company and the motivation, but other times you’ll have to run on your own.

Now if you’ve decided to do most of your preparation on a treadmill then you’ll have no problem, you can listen to the stereo or even watch TV.

However if you’re doing your running outside at times it can a little boring.

Bear in mind that towards the end of your training for a half marathon, you’ll be clocking up a fair few miles and your own thoughts and company might get a little tiresome.

So the obvious option is to wear headphones and listen to your MP3 player. There are good and bad things about doing this and they are follows…

Good

• You stave some off some of the boredom of running alone

• You get to listen to your own selection of music which can keep you entertained

• You can carefully format the tracks so that you get a new bouncy or motivational song or message every few minutes.

• You can download specially designed apps for runners that include lively tracks and motivational comments to keep you focussed.

• It can take your mind of any discomfort you’re feeling throughout your run.

Bad

You’ve removed one of your main senses… your ears. This puts you at greater risk for a number of reasons.

• Other road users, especially cars during the day. At night you’ll be able to see the headlights and then you’ll be aware of them approaching. During the day however, you don’t have this option.

• The music can take you in to an almost subconscious state where you aren’t as sharp or focussed on the things happening around you.

• You’ll be less aware of the people you encounter and may not pick up any vibes as to whether that person could be a threat in any way.

• You won’t hear hazard warning signals, sirens or car horns which alert you to any potential dangers.

• You won’t be aware of any barking dogs or other wildlife which may also pose a threat to you.

• If you’re running in unfamiliar places, your ears provide another essential monitoring and navigational tool, without which you increase your chances of getting lost.

So when you’re doing your training for a half marathon, it may seem an obvious option to listen to your headphones, but there are a number of things you need to be mindful of. If you run in very quiet rural areas then this may not be of as much concern as running in a city for example, but you still need to maintain your awareness at all times.

Perhaps the easiest compromise when training for a half marathon is to have your music on quietly most of the time and then when you know there’s nothing around you and you perceive no threat, for example running around a sports field then crank up the volume at this point.

Training for a half marathon is a serious undertaking, especially if you’ve not had years of running and fitness work under your belt. Never mind the fact that it’s half the distance of its big brother/sister the ‘marathon,’ it still needs respect.

You’ll be pushing your body out of its usual comfort zone, many times throughout your training for a half marathon, so it’s important that you start off in the best way possible.

Many people carry niggles and aches and pains around with them for years without attempting to fix the problem. Well, now isn’t the time to ignore them in the hope that they might somehow disappear. I suppose in some strange way, many aches and pains may well get fixed due to your new active hobby, but it’s still best to get them checked out first.

So my advice is to book in for a consultation with a qualified Physiotherapist. That way you can get their expert opinion on areas that are particularly tight or weak and they can then give you a plan of action to fix the issues.

Many quality physios will have a sporting background and may be able to relate any issues you have to your training. For example if you have particularly weak quadriceps muscles (front of thighs), but strong hamstrings (back of thighs) and they feel that the quads need strengthening, then it might be suggested to do some hill running which places more emphasis on the front of thighs instead of the back.

This way, you won’t have to wait a few weeks before you can start your running, you can begin straight away with confidence.

Another issue facing older runners anywhere over the age of 50, is that of the health of the heart and other internal organs. Again, it’s more likely that, you’ll strengthen the heart and circulatory system through running, but if there is an issue such as high blood pressure, then that needs fixing before you even begin.

Remember distance running (half marathon) is a highly repetitive sport, you perform the same movement thousands of times during each run, if the mechanics of your stride aren’t  just right, seemingly trivial matters can turn in to progress stopping disasters.

Throughout your training for a half marathon, you’ll need to be consistent with your running.

Picking up a preventable injury half way through your training schedule can set you back weeks and really derail you.

So for the sake of an hour or so of your time and a small fee, you can visit an expert before you begin so you sidestep this problem and focus on your half marathon training instead.