Training Question

Listen to yourself .

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Why do you want to be better and what are you hoping to get out of it? What is cutting 4 minutes of your time going to achieve. I am about in your range . Your question may be based on a false premise .

Even if there wasn’t a valid reason apart from wanting to get faster, is it wrong to for just wanting to get faster regardless of the time difference? However, this is the time needed to get a spot for New York Marathon. Since this is official NYRR race i would get entry for 2025 if ran this time. Hope this is helpful. I see your point though. I guess point here would be to become an overall better runner both in speed and endurance.

Keep the mileage at 70-80 per week.

Do two workouts a week plus a long run, the rest should just be easy runs.

1 workout should target vo2 max/anaerobic system, and you should aim to get 5-8kms of volume into these workouts. For example: "6 x 1k @ 5-10k pace, 1:30 jog recovery" or "5 x 1600m @ 10k pace, 2:30 jog recovery". Be sure to sequence these though, so that they start with less volume, and then build up to more.

The other workout should target your lactate threshold (LT2 - the pace you could hold for an all-out 1 hour effort), and you should aim to get 7-10kms of volume into these workouts. For example: "5 x 6:00 @ LT2 pace, 2:00 jog recovery" or "3 x 10:00 @ LT2 pace, 3:00 jog recovery".

Your long run can be run at a steady pace (faster than easy, but slower than marathon pace), but be careful not to overdo the pace, as your priorities should be the two other workouts of the week.

In the last 7 weeks before the race, you can get more race specific:

* 6.5 weeks out, sub out the threshold intervals and replace them with 3 x 3k @ HM race pace, 1k float recovery.

* 4.5 weeks out, sub out the threshold intervals and replace them with 10k @ HM race pace.

* 2.5 weeks out, sub out the threshold intervals and replace them with 4 x 3k @ HM race pace, 1k float recovery.

Good luck

Thanks so much! This is incredibly helpful. I will use this plan as it very structured.

Sorry one more question. Should the long run you mentioned be a hard long run or Should I be staying in zone 2? Nvm saw you wrote this above. Thanks again for the help

Yeah this looks solid enough to me, although I don't think you need the 5k-10k pace work every week. I can, however, see the benefits of it as you continue to develop in the sport. Your speed isn't fully trained so it makes sense to increase your top end. I might just have you pick a lane -- spend a block focusing just on your 5k/10k to increase your half marathon potential.

If you can handle the higher mileage, you'll get down to 1:21 or close to it by May. Just be smart with your training. If you're running 2 hard workouts/week, get rid of steady state runs if you mean that you're pushing it a bit on those days. Run easy on those days so that you can focus on your workout days. You can increase volume/mileage. Run an easy hour but hammering 4 runs/week on top of the workouts you're doing is going to lead to stagnation, burnout, or injury. Same deal with the long run. If you're already doing 2 hard workouts then you don't need to push them. You might naturally get down to that "steady state" zone which I'm ok with in the long run. A little natural progression there is fine but if it turns into a workout day then it needs to be treated like one. I like doing intentional quality in the long run every 2nd or 3rd week but replace one of your workouts with that as the workout day.

You have a lot of time until May. Maybe a 4ish week block now with 1 VO2 workout & 1 tempo workout each week. Then move into an 8-12 week race specific block where your main session is your threshold workout day.

Thanks for the response much appreciated! This community has been great. When you say transition to half marathon training where main session is threshold piece would you do any other session during that block or just one threshold session. Or were you referring to more so that’s the main session?

I think you can do 1 session if it's a session with good volume (12k-15k @ T). Alternate quality in the long run every other weekend. Can add in a shorter session the weeks you don't have quality in the long run or just focus on running a solid long run where it's not escalating to workout level but you're still clipping off some good miles.