Ok I am running a half in seven weeks, I am slow (going for sub 1:30) averaging 40-45 mpw, will build to 50. I am planning on structuring my remaining weeks with a 14-16 mile long run, a tempo run and 5 easy 6 milers.
My question is about the tempo run, how long should I do these for? I can handle 7 miles at 6:55 pace, should I just do one of these each weeek or is it gonna help to go even longer?
Please help a novice understand?
Queue the abuse....
bump
I vote you're at least in the ballpark. For 21 and 42k I've gotten much better results from this sort of longer tempo than "20 minutes @ hour race pace". 7 miles at half marathon pace would've been a bit much for me last I was training diligently - for an hour, I'd go closer to marathon pace - but that was within the context of double the volume, two workouts per week in addition to the long run, and a 40 year old body. Presumably you recover just fine with only the one workout.
You might also consider slowing down your long tempo a hair and adding a second "tempo intervals" (1-3 miles each) workout at half marathon pace, which gets you close to (the second half of) the Hanson "marathon training for mortals" -
http://www.runningtimes.com/rt/articles/print.asp?id=4447
Something like that, along with upping my mileage, got my half marathon down to 1:23 in fall 06, after being stuck at 1:31 for a couple years.
for 1/2s i like a 40 minute tempo, about 12-14s slower than true tempo pace.
assuming you are currently in about 1:30 shape, daniels has your tempo at 6:44 for about 20 mins, and adds 14s for 40 mins, so running 6:58 is about right for 6 miles. 7@6:55 is in the ballpark, maybe a bit fast.
obviously this is right around your race pace 6:52. doing the end of those long runs at 6:52 always helped me too.
Thanks for the reply.