Half Marathon Prior to Full Marathon: All Out or at Marathon Pace?

I did one at the beginning of the month and ran without a watch so I could try running by feel. It went well though I was a bit tired from a 14 miler three days earlier. This half was ten weeks out from my marathon. Since yours is much closer, I'd recommend running it a marathon pace. You'll have time to recover and also get an idea of your fitness.

Good luck.

"just continue marathon training and use the half as a marathon goal pace run"

I ran one 5 weeks out. Decided to race it, but to go out relaxed and pick it up late, at about 8, which is what I did. About a 1 min. negative split. It was a good confidence booster since it had been a while since I had raced a half (and 20+ years since I had done a marathon). I was able to get a hard tempo workout in 2 days later and my last 20-miler 7 days later without any problems, which also helped with the confidence.

Good luck.

i ran a half 3 weeks prior to a full in the spring. i ran at pace for the first 10, then picked it up (maybe a little harder than i was planning to) from there. i felt pretty wiped out for the next 1.5-2 weeks, probably since it was my only really long/hard workout on the roads up to that point.

at 4 weeks out, i'm not sure i'd want to race it, still. it can take a while to recover from that, and i'd think you'd still want another solid long run (22 or so) about a week after your race/three weeks out from the marathon. i struggled on a 15 miler a week after my half, and would have hated to feel that way on my last big important long run.

i'd say run it at MP, pick it up 10-15 sec/mi for the last 3. for the marathon, i think one of the most important and hardest things to do early, is to stay relaxed. running your half at MP in a competitive situation would really help you learn to hold back, something that's essential early in a marathon.

that's just what i think.

Thanks for the advice guys. Sounds like the consensus is MP.

We don't know how much running you are doing, which should play a role in the answer. If you're minimally or moderately trained, then yes, do it at MP. You don't want to be sore for a few days, and be forced to have a down week at this point in the marathon build-up. Maybe even do MP for 10m and then all-out for the next 5k. If you're running a lot (70-80+mpw), you should be fine racing it balls to the wall.

Well, I'm a masters guy and I have been doing 70 to 80 per week. I've struggled to get work outs in at that mileage. I've built up to that over the last 4 months after taking half a year off due to injuries. Just hitting the mileage with a couple of tempos per week has been difficult for me. When I throw in faster workouts, I just get exhausted. I'm a masters guy if that makes a difference. I'm leaning towards MP because I think the risk is that I will need too much recovery time after a balls to the wall effort and screw up the marathon prep.

This is just it Water Rat. Anything you are doing right now should be making you feel better physically and mentally, not breaking you down. I'm doing my first marathon on the 30th and ran a half marathon at marathon pace a week and a half ago (3 weeks before race day) and was able to do a 135 minute progression run 3 days later. Another runner in that race who is also running a marathon on the 30th raced the same half as myself and said he wasn't planning on running hard or long again until the following weekend. He's run marathon's before but personally it doesn't make sense to me to be recovering from a long race so soon before "the big one".

Here's the training that Gelindo Bordin did leading up to a half marathon that he ran 13 days before winning gold in the marathon in '88. Although 1:03:27 is a faster pace than he ever ran in an actual marathon (his PB of 2:08:19 was run 2 years later in Boston) from his training you can see that his marathon specific workouts were also all run at this pace. For example, from earlier in the same schedule he runs the following workout: 3 x 7000m rec. 1000m (23 km in 1:08'41", aver. 2'59") with 20'57" (av. 2'59"5) / 3'10" - 20'54" (av. 2'59") / 3'08" - 20'32"(av. 2'56"). As a pace change workout that adds up to 23km and averages 2:59/km this is a harder workout than his half marathon (assuming like conditions of course). Finally, the fact that he runs 276 km the week before his half marathon (with a 53 km run on the Wednesday) also suggests that he approached this run as part of his training rather than a race. That's all I have to offer. Hope you have a good one!

10th week (12 - 18 of September)

Mon, 12 : M) 1:05' moderate (16 km)

A) 1:20' at 3'35" (22 km) (38 km)

Tue, 13 : M) 1:20' at 4' (20 km)

A) 1:20' at 3'45" (21 km) (41 km)

Wed, 14 : M) 15' easy + stretching

A) 50 km in 2:41' (last 10 km in 31'02")

(average 3'13") (53 km)

Thu, 15 : M) 50' moderate + stretching (13 km)

A) 1:05' moderate with short variations of speed

(17 km) + hydromassage (30 km)

Fri, 16 : M) TEST FARAGGIANA-GIGLIOTTI (I explain later)

A) 1:12' moderate (18 km) (36 km)

Sat, 17 : M) 1:14' moderate (18 km)

A) 1:14' at 3'20" / 3'25" (22 km) (40 km)

Sun, 18 : M) 1:10' moderate (17 km)

A) 1:20' moderate (21 km) (38 km)

Total volume : 276 km

Mon, 19 : M) 5 km easy + 6 km progressive (av. 3'09")

A) NAT. CHAMP. of HM : 1st in 1:03'27" (3'/km)

(37 km)

preemptive spelling correction: marathons not marathon's

RAce it all out.

Don't be a pussy. You can run all the MP you want in training but you get precious few opportunities to test your racing mettle in a marathon build up. Don't waste them. RACE THE F**KER

If you're struggling, I wouldn't push the HM. As I said, I took it pretty easy and then cranked it up from 8 in. I was 49 with lower mileage, but I was recovering well from all my hard stuff (and had run Reach-the-Beach 2 weeks before the HM).