Half Marathon -- MUST DO workouts to PB

I will rock the Alphafly V1 and that's the same race shoe I ran my 1:29 in!

I heard D2 college runner Cole Nash got caught doping as well as other banned narcotics. This sort of cheating is getting out of hand.

Holy volume, Batman! 1:25 half marathon is 6:29/mile and is a total of 21.1 kilometers. At these target paces, they are insane workouts for even an experienced, high-mileage runner that has a better understanding of their capabilities. 15k of volume at faster than your half marathon pace is running your race before it happens. 25k of volume at 5 seconds slower than your goal pace in a workout is basically unachievable, unless you are underestimating your capabilities.

OP, don't do these workouts, you'll either run your race before it happens or lose confidence because you can't complete the workout. You don't need to run more than 7-8 miles at goal pace before a half marathon in order to be in shape for it. Just ran a 1:14 PR myself and the most time I spent at goal pace or faster in a workout was 40-45 minutes. Anything longer than that was spent at marathon pace with some faster segments at half marathon pace thrown into the run.

People seem to want to use super sessions as a get rich quick scheme. Why waste time running an extra 25-30 miles a week when all you have to do is one killer sesh?

I cut my pb from 1:34 to 1:31 flat after years of failed attempts by doing a pfitzinger plan on about the same mileage as you. The big change was to do three progressive longys in the block that each ended in 30min M pace into 3-5k of threshold. All by feel. On hills. Efforts were moderate to allow recovery and consistent progression to peak on race day. The long progression runs were only about 20-22k and spaced two or three weeks apart.

Reading along, this is the first serious response and is the best.

25x400 @ 89 (1:00); 5x 1600 @ 5:52 (5:00).

Double threshold two times a week.

There are a lot of people prescribing monster volume workouts. You shouldn't listen to these people, as if you follow their advice, you'll likely run your race in training.

The best thing to do is to sequence your workouts, so that every 10-14 days you're doing a specific workout at half marathon intensity.

I'd recommend something to the effect of:

8 weeks out: 3 x 3k @ HM effort, 1k float recovery

6 weeks out: 2 x 5k @ HM effort, 1k jog recovery

4-4.5 weeks out: 10k @ HM effort

2-2.5 weeks out: 4 x 3k @ HM effort, 1k float recovery

Note: I've said effort. It's okay to be a little slower than goal pace in these (I've always ended up running faster on race day than the paces I've trained at). You really want to dial into that sub-threshold rhythm. Always ask yourself "could I hold this pace for 21.1ks?"

You probably also want to do a few steadier long runs to tie it all together. Nothing crazy, perhaps 2-3 runs of 20-25kms @ 45 secs/km slower than race pace. I'd recommend spreading these out at weeks 7, 5 and 3 until race day. Your other long runs on the off weeks can just be your usual easy pace.

Here's something I posted on a similar thread here in 2016. (Below the asterisks.) Sorry for the bad formatting

*********

I went back to a thread from 2011 (search "half marathon KudzuRunner"
for the complete thread) and found a post I'd contributed that
addresses some general questions about training. I was 51 when I ran the
times I described. In my mid-20s I ran a 1:20 half and a 2:53 marathon
with 10Ks down around 36 flat.
Here's what I wrote in 2011:
I got some very useful guidance from Tinman a couple of years ago and set
my masters PR of 1:31:03 (6:57 pace) at St. Jude. He suggested
progressive tempo runs of 2 x 3 mile and 3 x 2 mile. I did that, plus
some longer tempo runs (5-6 miles) and fast-finish LR's (15-16 with the
last mile or two at goal HM pace or a little faster). Here's a report on
my training:
______________________________________________________
My goal half marathon is 13 days away. I finished off the hardest week of
the training cycle with a solid workout: 12 miles (instead of the 15-18
mile LR I've been doing), with 6 x mile at goal HM pace, on short grass.
1:30 jogs between miles. Below are my times and average HRs (as % of
max HR) during each mile:
6:55 (85.5%)
6:56 (86.5%)
6:53 (86.5%)
6:54 (88%)
6:53 (88.5%)
6:42 (89%)

I'm shooting for a goal pace of 6:57 or better. (6:58 is my Master's PR pace, set a few years ago)

At the end of the second mile my legs were a little tired, but they
stabilized. The third mile was strong. And the final mile, more than 10
seconds faster than Mile 5, felt good. This was a tough workout, but not
a real ball-buster.
The most significant thing about this workout is that it came at the end of a week in which I'd emphasized specific
endurance paces (plus/minus a few % of goal HM pace) more than in ANY
previous training week of my entire career. Wednesday was 3 x 2 miles
progressive tempo (7:08/6:55, for example); Friday was 5 @ 7:08
continuous. Today was 6 x mile @ 6:52 average. That adds up to 17 miles
of training in the vicinity of HM pace, out of 43 total miles: 40% of my
mileage this week! The fact that I could hit my 17th such mile as hard
as I did, without coming near my redline, seems like a good sign. My
mpw. dropped slighly from my recent average of 50 mpw.
___________________________________________________
So I did a whole lot of running, two weeks out, in and around my goal HM
pace, but I did it as intervals, not as a continuous run. I grooved the
pace, but I didn't try to run the race before I actually threw down on
the race course.
I also did an 18-miler about three weeks out. Just a solid run, not a fast finish.
I ran a very strong race, for me, with a slight negative split. Actually,
I think I ran 7:00 for the first 7 miles and 6:52 pace for the last
6.1. Tinman advised me to wear a HR monitor and run slightly below
threshold for the first 3 miles, then gently begin to push. When things
began to hurt in the final three miles, I was ready and able to keep on
cranking.

At this level the easiest thing you can do is lose 5 to 10 lbs. very unlikely you are at optimal weight and will easily get you a 10 to 20 sec per mile boost.

Thank you! Will be adding these to the training plan 100%

my 12-week Half marathon training block starts today!!! Any HM workout suggestions that gain you a lot of confidence? Please share!

Projecting to hit 35-45 miles this week. 12-13 mile steady LR this weekend. Should be fun.

I did 1:21 on 45 miles a week and 36 10k. All I did was simple workouts and jogged the rest at 8-9 minute miles.

6x800

3x1 mile

4/5 x 1k

The key is consistency not how many reps you can do.

What were your long runs like when you were preparing for your 1:21 HM?

This whole thread is too much unnecessary details. Just do hard long runs every week. I didn't even do any workouts besides hammering my long run and ran 1:10.

for a 1:10 what distances were your long runs? Did you do a mid-week longer run? I'm sure you spiced it up a little to achieve a 70 minute HM.