
“I had a coach who would say that your heart doesn’t know if you’re running or swimming.” “Anything that gets your heart rate up for an extended period will help your endurance,” says John Honerkamp, a run coach who works with Strava and celebrities like Karlie Kloss and CEO of Run Kamp, a New York-based training company.

This also means that a cyclist or swimmer with a solid endurance base will have an easier time running a marathon without officially “marathon training” than, say, someone who just started working out yesterday. So, don’t feel so bad if you’ve only been running three times a week-not six like your training buddy or that 50-percent-annoying/50-percent-inspiring Instagram influencer-and progressing in your long runs.

Since you have some experience with running, you should know what pace feels really comfortable for you when you run an easy 5-10k. What you have to be careful of is your pace. Let’s say you have run so far at least up to 5/10k and you aim to run a half marathon. If you are a runner who has run a couple of times or run from time to time, you have a good chance to run a half-marathon without a particular training program.
