I have a half marathon coming in two weeks' time, and am wondering what kind of shape I'm in. Did quite a lot of tempo work in the past two months, here are my workouts in the last four weeks:
Week#1
-15k progression, first 5k 21:20, second 19:20, last 17:40
-10x800m on track w400m recovery, all in 2:39, last 2:37, easy 400s in less than 2min
-21k steady in 1:23 (last mile 5:30)
Week#2
-18k progression, fist 6k 6:40/mile pace, second 6 6:10/mile, third 6k 5:38/mile
-12x400m on track in 1:17 with 100m rest in 30s
-Hilly 10k race in 34:30 (winner was a 2:17 marathoner, 65min half guy, ran 31:40, which he claimed to be full effort)
Week#3
-15k steady in 58min
-7k tempo in 24:30 (5:37/mile)
-15 miles slow (1:52)
Week#4
-18k progression, similar as 2 weeks before, only slightly faster, last 6k in 5:36/mile, felt good
-3x3k at 10:19, 10:15, 10:08 with 2min rest (standing)
-planning to do a longer cca 20mi run during the weekend
Felt quite strong during afromentioned workouts, and didn't over do them. Overall, weekly mileage is between 70 and 80 miles, easy runs are anywhere between 6:50-8min miles.
What kind of time should I aim or? 1:16 flat? or 1:15, maybe even 1:14? My PB's are several years old (1:15:30 and 2:38:30 full,), but I did those times with much more interval training and less amount of running at "tempo" paces. And both times I had quite severe positive splits (went through 10k in 35 flat for the half, and through 21k in 1:16:30 for the full). I generally have (had) a problem with fading in the second half of either half or full marathon, so I'm wondering, if I had been over optimistic before. Now, I trained differently, less intense actually, so maybe here is my answer. Still, I don't want to start to fast, so any input would be appreciated.
Also what kind of workouts are recomended in the last two weeks? I am not a big believer in a huge taper, however I might have a tendency to overdo things before a big race.