1:19-1:20 half marathon?

Dude, you can absolutely hit a 1:19 or 1:20 in the race, I have no doubts whatsoever, provided you do a short taper.

If you can run 6 pace for 5 in a 17 miler, you can get pretty close to 1:19.

When I ran 1:19:00 I was running close to 17 flat 5k and doing a weekly tempo pretty close to 6 pace for 5 miles. I was only running about 30 miles a week but doing another 7 hours a week of crosstraining on the stairmaster.

Assuming it's a reasonably fast course, sub-1:20 is very reasonable for you. Caution: run your own race though, just hit those 5:55-6:00 splits and take scalps the last mile or two.

You should be under 17 soon as well, with some faster work.

nonplussed wrote:

Assuming it's a reasonably fast course, sub-1:20 is very reasonable for you. Caution: run your own race though, just hit those 5:55-6:00 splits and take scalps the last mile or two.

You should be under 17 soon as well, with some faster work.

I would just sit on your teammate for 12.5 miles and dust him the last .6. Letting him break the wind the whole race will be worth 30-40 seconds.

Dude, you can absolutely hit a 1:19 or 1:20 in the race, I have no doubts whatsoever, provided you do a short taper.

When do you think I should start the taper? Maybe 4-5 days before?

Thanks to all for the responses, I'm feeling pretty confident about this.

krmf wrote:

Dude, you can absolutely hit a 1:19 or 1:20 in the race, I have no doubts whatsoever, provided you do a short taper.

When do you think I should start the taper? Maybe 4-5 days before?

Thanks to all for the responses, I'm feeling pretty confident about this.

Yes, that's about what I'd recommend...probably 5 would be better than 4. Could even do a week-long taper but feel like to get that detailed we'd need to really know the details of your training. Either way, a 4-7 day taper should get you as fresh as you need to be.

Dude, unless it is a challenging course, I'd be really surprised if you aren't well under 120.

I'd be tempted to shoot for 1:16 or so, but since this is your first half, conservative is probably good. However, if you find yourself effortlessly clipping off 550s at the start of the race, don't fight it.

crush your teammate wrote:

If you can run 6 pace for 5 in a 17 miler, you can get pretty close to 1:19.

When I ran 1:19:00 I was running close to 17 flat 5k and doing a weekly tempo pretty close to 6 pace for 5 miles. I was only running about 30 miles a week but doing another 7 hours a week of crosstraining on the stairmaster.

9/10

STAIRMASTER! That was awesome :)