Half marathon tuneup how close to full?

I don't see any problems with a half 2 weeks from the full. I think it would serve as a good "walk through"

I'm planning on doing a 13 mile tune up run on Wednesday night in preparation for Chicago on October 7. I'm gunning for sub 3 hours, and want to do a tempo in the 1:28 range. I

This year for my full build up i raced a half 4 weeks before ( tapered 2 weeks for it), then 2 weeks out from full did 16 @ mgp. It worked pretty well. If the half is 2 weeks out i wouldnt race it all out, maybe slightly faster than goal pace. I like doing the tune ups 3-4 weeks out. Gives you time to get another good workout in.

The two prior responses are very different. romeslettuce talks of doing it at essentially marathon pace two weeks out. np1112 of racing an HM four weeks out and then doing a marathon paced one two weeks out.

Racing it two weeks out would probably be a mistake. Racing four weeks out gives a good proxy for your condition with time to recover and get some final mileage in. But two weeks out is too close to recover. Particularly since it's not important, why take the risk. Don't underestimate the time needed to recover from a hard HM-effort.

What makes sense is to use it as a rehearsal. Make yourself run slowly, at marathon pace, under race conditions. Particularly since this is your second marathon, that type of discipline is important.

If you've followed Pfitz/Douglas so far, you should be fine. Good luck.

Hadd would never let us RACE a marathon within 5 weeks of the full if the full was the goal race.

Your body takes two full weeks to recover completely from the half and that is during some critical prep time for the marathon.

I also coach runners and always say to never race a half 4 weeks out or less. I have watched too many runners pay the price.

I would use the half, however, as a practice run for the marathon. Do a warm up of 2-3 miles, run the half at MP and then even do a few cool down miles. Practice drinking and taking fuel during the half, wear your marathon gear, wake up early and eat, etc.

The idea is to practice everything you would do come race day.

And the option of racing the 10K as per the book (then the 24 long run the next day on tired legs) - 10K should recover substantially quicker than the HM? I'm a terrible gauge of recovery aside from those days where I'm totally flat.

I'm 38, last full was 3:25 hoping for 3:07 this time around.

Thanks for the advice though! Don't want to sabotage myself.

Too close to race all out. Warm up 2-3 miles and then run 13.1 at your goal pace. This workout should feel pretty comfortable.

About 1.5 hours before.