breaking 1:20

Possibly but really need to know your times for distances more than 8km. I could run a 1,56 800m and a 35 min 10km and did the odd 25km easy run around 60kms per week and tried a half and was on course for 1.17 or so until toilet problems struck with a few kms to go. I did 1.23.

half jogger wrote:

Half marathon coming up in two weeks. I've been running 30-35mpw for a couple of months now. PR is 1:20 from two years back (never run 5k or 10k)

My last workouts:

3x1600 and 3x1200 @5:20/mile w/ 400m jog

5mile tempo @5:49 pace

10 min easy / 10 min hard for 90min, hard 5:46 easy 7:20 pace

Should I give 1:19 a shot based on this? maybe 1:18?

The five mile tempo says yes, you'll just have to dig deep and not believe everyone who says your lack of volume will make you weaken dramatically in the last half.

How much were you training for 1:20?

The only race I've done recently was 10.7 miles on a fairly hilly course with the finish line 540ft higher than the start and I ran 1:04. So I'm wondering how well that translates to a flat half

I feel I was running the same volume as I do now, about 30 miles a week in 3-4 sessions. I started wearing a watch not long ago, so I have no idea how fast my workouts were...

Yeah, that's good enough. How old are you? Most would probably think you were a 1:15 guy or better if you got serious.

thanks for the reply! I'm 23, never trained seriously I've been running on and off (mostly off) on my own for the past 4-5 years. I've never run short distance but I know for sure I don't have speed, I'm probably better off sticking to 15k+

and while I'm here, what are some good workouts to do 2 weeks out?

worked for me wrote:

The five mile tempo says yes, you'll just have to dig deep and not believe everyone who says your lack of volume will make you weaken dramatically in the last half.

You lack volume and will fade. Kidding! But seriously, you're mileage is really low.

But given your youth you could probably nudge under 1:20 with that kind of speed. Nowhere near 1:15 though. Worth a try though, then once you fall short you can do it again with volume and see the difference.

I think the 3 or 4 x 2 miles @HM pace is a pretty common workout to do near the end of a buildup.

I've read a lot different options on the rest. 2-4 minutes seems to come up most, and obviously those would have big differences in how the workout goes and how you feel. If you've been doing a bunch of HM pace stuff, less rest would probably be better. If you haven't (which sounds like your case), maybe 3-4 minutes or 1/2 mile recovery would be good.

Others like longer stuff, like 6 to 8 miles at HM pace. Again, that could be tougher depending on how much HM pace stuff you've done.

Alternatively you could run a 12 miler where you do the first 4 easy, the middle 4 at more of a marathon pace, and that last 4 at HM pace.

Curious to see what others suggest.

itdepends wrote:

I think the 3 or 4 x 2 miles @HM pace is a pretty common workout to do near the end of a buildup.

I've read a lot different options on the rest. 2-4 minutes seems to come up most, and obviously those would have big differences in how the workout goes and how you feel. If you've been doing a bunch of HM pace stuff, less rest would probably be better. If you haven't (which sounds like your case), maybe 3-4 minutes or 1/2 mile recovery would be good.

Others like longer stuff, like 6 to 8 miles at HM pace. Again, that could be tougher depending on how much HM pace stuff you've done.

Alternatively you could run a 12 miler where you do the first 4 easy, the middle 4 at more of a marathon pace, and that last 4 at HM pace.

Curious to see what others suggest.

I suggest he doesn't listen to you.

You know what is great about this forum, all the helpful and constructive responses that come out.

Oh wait, that's not Let's Run. That must be somewhere else.

Dude, that guy gave some solid workouts. Why not offer up some of your own?

Getting in 4 to 8 miles of half marathon pace work is really solid. Alternatively you could just pick a workout that builds on what you have done recently. So 4 (maybe 5) mile repeats instead of 3. Or extend your tempo run by a mile or so. Though if you were doing that I'd be inclined to slow the pace down so it's closer the 6ish minute miles you'd need for 1:19.

But if you want to do a bigger workout, do it soon. Two weeks is not much time.

Thanks for the serious replies this far. I'll let you know how it goes

See there are lots of people on here like Somebloke who give good advice and don't elaborate and then there are a few like Notjustsomebloke who try to contradict them but then ACTUALLY SAY THE SAME THING even if they don't know it.

Notjust... do you think the OP is going to run on Tuesday, November 2? The odds are he will be running on Oct 29 or 30, running 8 miles at HM pace, even with 3 breaks, now would be suicide for someone only running 30 mpw. That is why Somebloke said what he did. Even if he is running Nov 6 or 7, he really won't benefit from that hard of a workout.

But I guess you are counting on him running Nov 7 and doing only 3 x 2 miles at HM, to support Itdepends' suggestions.

"You know what is great about this forum, all the helpful and constructive responses that come out.

Oh wait, that's not Let's Run. That must be somewhere else.

Dude, that guy gave some solid workouts. Why not offer up some of your own?

Getting in 4 to 8 miles of half marathon pace work is really solid. Alternatively you could just pick a workout that builds on what you have done recently. So 4 (maybe 5) mile repeats instead of 3. Or extend your tempo run by a mile or so. Though if you were doing that I'd be inclined to slow the pace down so it's closer the 6ish minute miles you'd need for 1:19.

But if you want to do a bigger workout, do it soon. Two weeks is not much time."

I did not know for sure which weekend he would be running the race, and I did say at the end he was running out of time, though I didn't elaborate much on that.

Mostly I was annoyed at somebloke. Sure, he's given some good advice from time to time, but more often than not he just throws out super negative, one sentence responses. And those responses are not the same thing as being constructive. They just shut down possible options and give no reason or suggestion for an alternative and leave no place for discussion.

notjustsomebloke wrote:

somebloke wrote:

I suggest he doesn't listen to you.

You know what is great about this forum, all the helpful and constructive responses that come out.

Oh wait, that's not Let's Run. That must be somewhere else.

Dude, that guy gave some solid workouts. Why not offer up some of your own?

Getting in 4 to 8 miles of half marathon pace work is really solid. Alternatively you could just pick a workout that builds on what you have done recently. So 4 (maybe 5) mile repeats instead of 3. Or extend your tempo run by a mile or so. Though if you were doing that I'd be inclined to slow the pace down so it's closer the 6ish minute miles you'd need for 1:19.

But if you want to do a bigger workout, do it soon. Two weeks is not much time.

I rarely have the patience to explain my thoughts on letsrun, so I go for the low-hanging fruit: bashing all the idiots here.

8 miles of HMP work is a lot. This is the type of stuff you would do once in a whole training plan, and most hobby joggers shouldn't even come close to that type of effort. it's too damn long and taxing.

go with a more sensible and traditional 6 miler tempo. or do daniels' cruise intervals. the options are endless. do a wave tempo. do a cutdown tempo. do some lactate clearance intervals. do whatever you want, but size it appropriately to your talent level.

Thanks, man. Those are some good alternatives and things to think about.

Quick update: I ended up running 1:15.4x!

I did the 4x2miles @1:20 hm pace 12 days out and it felt surprisingly easy so I was pretty confident I would break 1:20... but was definitely not expecting 1:15. Thanks for all the advice

nice troll. yeah nice job jumping from 1:20 to 1:15 on 30 mpw with no experience at shorter race distances. guys from my high school did it all the time, it was nbd.

Why would more miles and experience at shorter distances be necessary?

Whoever said he's trolling is silly those workouts are pretty solid especially the 90 mins with half at 547 half st 720. I would think someone doing that workout can run that pace (547) for 75 mins