Former D1 distance guy here who is in good overall shape (way over college racing weight but not fat, still nimble and flexible, etc) but not good running shape because I haven't run over 30 miles in a week in years. I want to race my first half in 2021 and have never raced longer than 10K so I'm curious about some of the best workouts some of the posters here have done that was a good primer and measuring stick for a half marathon. Any input?
What's a good workout to gauge current half marathon potential?
Training Advice/Discussion
Marathon
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13.1mi TT
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4x2 mile w/ 2' rest at 8/10 effort.
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6 miles easy, followed immediately by
5 miles HM pace, followed immediately by
1 mile all out (probably somewhere between 10K and HM pace).
On race day of my first HM, I ended up going around 5 seconds faster per mile. -
Just run a half marathon time trial. Boom! Now you know your current fitness
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Put in your 10k PB in a running calculator and that should be a good guess.
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3 x 4500 with 4 min jog. It should be almost all out workout
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onlookerbos wrote:
13.1mi TT
FTW -
I always liked to build to a 14-16, mile run with at least 6 miles @ goal Half pace during the last half. Start with 2-3 , and add one every other week, and just run an easy- steady LR the next week. This hits your endurance and threshold, but they are really hard. You can break them up with 1 -2 min easy jog, in 1-3 mile sets. This type of workout will really show if you can handle the Half pace. It's mostly about threshold type work for the Half. If you are distance type guy, keep the Vo2 Max stuff up during the week too so the Half pace will feel easier.
Another good one is those Daniels cruise mile intervals with a 1 min JR. Do this in a 10 miler trying to hit your goal Half pace or slightly faster. Start with 2-3 and work to 6, you can do more, but I wouldn't unless you are doing above 50 mpw. These work good if you don't want to put that much work into the LR above, and they won't fatigue you as much. Go into the race fresh, not wiped out.
In order to find your date pace paces, just do a 3 mile TT. If workouts get too easy, just do another TT and adjust your paces. I like this.
https://runsmartproject.com/calculator/ -
I've always felt like a 5-6 mile tempo is a good indicator. Whatever pace you can hold for the last 3-4 miles without thinking "this isn't a tempo anymore" is around your HM pace.
It's easier to cheat with shorter reps -- you can slow the rest, or just race the workout without being aware of it. -
3-4 x 2 miles off of 2:00 rests. You'll probably be ~ 2-5 seconds/mile quicker in this one.
8 x mile or 12-15 x 1km off of 1:00 rests. Same deal, you'll probably be just a touch quicker on these.
Long runs where you do something like 2-3 up, 3-4 @ half marathon, 6-8 easy, 3-4 @ half marathon, 2-3 down.
Plugging a recent 8k-10 miler into a calculator.
Mileage in conjunction with all of these things. For a half, if you're hitting at least 70 miles/week, these predictions will be a lot closer. -
Leading up to my best half, I ran 2x 5k at (goal pace -5 sec) with 800m jog in between. Also 7x mile with a minute rest (same pace). These were on modest mileage (50-60). Both were feel good workouts that gave me confidence that I was ready to go.
