Looking for advice on training for racing a half on Sat and then another half on Sun. I will be entering a local race where they race back 2 back and then add up the total time.
I'm uncertain on how to approach training for this and would like other runners input.
Additional info: My last half was 1:30:41 in spring of 2013 and I would like to slightly better that time on both legs of the race. Currently I am running around 35 miles per week.
Here are some ideas:
Do a marathon training program, but cap the long run at 20 miles.
Double your mileage. Increasing mileage 10% a week will take about 8 weeks. Increase even slower if you've never run that much before.
Consider getting mentally used to less recovery with 2 a days or back to back tempos.
Race the first one to crush 1:30, start the second one easy and pick up the pace as you go.
Drink a lot of water between races.
Read this if you want ideas for workouts:
http://www.baa.org/programs/training-programs/marathon-training/advanced-16-week-program.aspx
Good luck.
If your PR is 1:30, I feel like the way you'd get a good overall time is with something like 1:33, 1:29. I don't see any possible way you could run anything near a PR the day after a PR performance.
Surrounded,
That makes a bunch of sense (and I would agree with the advice), assuming that I'm at the same level of fitness. However, since last years PR, I've been running with some new (faster) buddies this fall. I'm putting in more miles and improved paces overall. I expect to improve my PR in the Half in early May. The Back 2 Back Half that I am looking at is months after that so I have some time.
Perhaps I should take my 2014 time and then add a few mins as you suggested. Probably should expect to be at least somewhat slower on both days.
Thanks.
TadEdge
Math,
Good stuff, Thanks!
What is the thinking behind 20 miles? I get that for marathon training, not sure about 1/2's. Would maybe say 15-16 followed by 12-13 the next day make more sense?
"Consider getting mentally used to less recovery with 2 a days or back to back tempos."
Good suggestion, I'll definitely incorporate this!
My thoughts were that anything over 20 miles wouldn't help as much with a half plus that would be a large percent of your weekly mileage in one day.
If it were just one race, I'd run a 17 miler. 15-16 is common too. I just thought 22 or 23 would be overkill, but you'd want to do more since you're trying to recover in a day.
What you may want to try is a hard effort that would typically cause some soreness like a tempo run or race, then next day do a long run.
So like 2 mile warm up, 6 mile tempo or 10k race, 2 miles easy. Then the next day do your 15-16 easy.
All the numbers are based on my experience and you should scale up or down based your experience. I'd hate for you to get injured trying to run too many miles and miss the race.