1/2 marathon proposed workouts-impossible?Discus

rungeek13 wrote:

Just came across this article talking about workouts to break 2hrs in the 1/2.

https://runningmagazine.ca/sections/training/workouts-to-break-2-hours-in-the-half-marathon/

Some of the workouts seems excessively hard, if not impossible.

1)24k(15M) at 14-24s/k (9-15s/mile) slower than 1/2 pace.

2)This one is the craziest IMO--1hr tempo at 6-16s/k (4-10s/mile) FASTER than 1/2 pace +15min wu/cdwn

3)4X1200 at 5:00/k (8:00/mile) with 4min recovery

1hour tempo at faster than HMP would seem impossible-(I think malmo and others would agree?)

Difficult and not something I would advise for runners of their ability level (4+ hour marathoners), but not impossible. Their HMP is what they can run run for 2 hours. Slightly faster than that for 1 hour would be difficult but within reach. I doubt these are all workouts that they would do regularly.

Isn’t that just 6-7 miles at HMP? Seems tough but reasonable to me.

well it'd be close to 10k-15k pace so 6-7Miles at 6-10M pace... basically a race.

2) -1hr tempo at 6-16s/k (4-10s/mile) FASTER than 1/2 pace +15min wu/cdwn"

If someone is a 2:10 half (9'55" pace). This is a 1hr run at 9'45-9'50"p. They can run over 2hrs at 9'55, how would just one hour at 9'50" be impossible?

This is a hard wkt for someone at that caliber, but nothing near impossible. Quite doable actually!

a couple things,

1)2hr 1/2 is 9:09/mile

2)Based on that, Daniels T pace is 8:45/mile and the workout suggested here is 1 hour at 8:40-8:55 pace...right in the middle of Daniels T pace. So you're saying 1 hour at Daniels T pace is a reasonable workout. I think that's crazy. It just seems to me a really difficult workout, one that is quickly approaching race effort.

rungeek13 wrote:

a couple things,

1)2hr 1/2 is 9:09/mile

2)Based on that, Daniels T pace is 8:45/mile and the workout suggested here is 1 hour at 8:40-8:55 pace...right in the middle of Daniels T pace. So you're saying 1 hour at Daniels T pace is a reasonable workout. I think that's crazy. It just seems to me a really difficult workout, one that is quickly approaching race effort.

"This one is the craziest IMO--1hr tempo at 6-16s/k (4-10s/mile) FASTER than 1/2 pace +15min wu/cdwn"

Based on a 2 hour Half marathon, the workout would be 1 hour at 8:59-9:05/mile, not 8:40-8:55/mile. Where are you getting this math from? Even then, it would still be much slower than the Daniels T pace you brought up.

Kicker wrote:

"This one is the craziest IMO--1hr tempo at 6-16s/k (4-10s/mile) FASTER than 1/2 pace +15min wu/cdwn"

Based on a 2 hour Half marathon, the workout would be 1 hour at 8:59-9:05/mile, not 8:40-8:55/mile. Where are you getting this math from? Even then, it would still be much slower than the Daniels T pace you brought up.

Sorry I made conversion error from min/k to min/mile. The article is recording everything in min/k, then I was converting it. I'll just stick with min/k.

2hr 1/2 is 5:41/k. Using Daniels, that gives me a threshold pace of 5:26/k. Based on the article, Reid is advocating a 1hr tempo at 5:25-5:35/k.

(Converting those paces gives me 8:40-8:56-I originally made a mistake saying 4-10s/mile faster, it's actually 10-25s/mile...divided vs. multiplied 6-16 s/km by 1.6)

rungeek13 wrote:

a couple things,

1)2hr 1/2 is 9:09/mile

2)Based on that, Daniels T pace is 8:45/mile and the workout suggested here is 1 hour at 8:40-8:55 pace...right in the middle of Daniels T pace. So you're saying 1 hour at Daniels T pace is a reasonable workout. I think that's crazy. It just seems to me a really difficult workout, one that is quickly approaching race effort.

+1

1 hour at slightly faster or slightly slower than 1 hour race pace (the definition of threshold pace) is a race, independently of the runner's level.

I would say that doing this while untampered is very close to impossible.

Yeah, looks unreasonable to me. I doubt running 24k in training at a steady pace is needed, or possible, for people trying to break 2.

rungeek13 wrote: 2)Based on that, Daniels T pace is 8:45/mile and the workout suggested here is 1 hour at 8:40-8:55 pace...right in the middle of Daniels T pace. So you're saying 1 hour at Daniels T pace is a reasonable workout. I think that's crazy. It just seems to me a really difficult workout, one that is quickly approaching race effort.

I recently helped my gf get a sub 2hr HM.

IMO 1hr at 8:45 shouldn't be too hard for someone who hopes to beat 2 hours. My gf had done a 10mile run at that pace about 2 weeks before the half and finished it knowing she could have gone on (so I knew the half was in the bag). She did end up with 1hr 55 mins.

I guess if you're someone who benefits hugely from tapering and race-day boost AND 1hr59 is the best you could possibly get then doing 1 hour at 8:45 should be pretty damn tough. But still if you're planning to spend 2 hours running a HM I think you should be able to do 1 hour at a bit faster pace.

Its a different story if your HM target is less time. If it's 1:30 for instance the 1 hr is 2/3rds of your race time. But if you're running for 2 hours you need to be comfortable coming through that 1 hour mark.