Good morning/afternoon everyone,
I am in the process of training for my 2nd half marathon and have been working in a weekly training run or repeats at goal half marathon pace. My question for the veterans out there is what would be a reasonable distance to get up to for a training run at goal pace by race day? 8 miles? 9? 10? Or are those too taxing.
Thanks in advance.
I wouldn't go longer than 4 - 5 miles straight at HM pace in training. And that's pushing it. A very good half marathon training is a 10 K competition IMHO.
Other good stuff:
3 - 4 x 2 miles or
2 x 3 miles
with proper rest.
Pikachu
I think it depends on how many miles a week you run and your fitness. If you run more miles, your workouts will be lighter by necessity. Also, the more out-of-shape you are, the more removed your half pace is from your 10k pace and the longer your workouts should be.
Not all half marathon paces are created equal. We need more information.
When I ran near 1:40 range I could probably do 8 or 9 on at the pace I'd end up racing at without killing myself on the run (then again, at the time, I considered 8 miles a long run).
When I ran 1:20:XX, 5 miles would probably have felt almost like a race effort in training, but a 4 mile "tempo" (dangerous word around here) would probably be a good reality check.
I'm not sure how that relationship would hold for faster guys since they might be able to handle more in workouts than me since they likely train harder than I did (or have more talent...likely both). Slower runners (like 2 hours +) would probably not be able to go a whole lot faster than their typical long run pace.
I am aiming to break 1:25. I've run other other half on a hilly course last year in 1:26:04.
Training is approximately 45 mpw with a long run by feel, a long tempo ranging from 6:50-6:20 pace, hills or shorter repeats for turnover and easy/steady state runs.
6, either straight or broken up (2x3mi). in the context of an 80-100 mile week with a long run and 2 workouts, it's hard to do much more.
if you're able to do more, you're probably mini-tapering in training AND wasting a race effort in training. save it for raceday.
for 7-10 mile tempos, add 10-15s to goal race pace to keep from trashing yourself on a training run.
Thanks eveyrone!
So it sounds like a a decent plan is going to be built around a standard long run, a workout of solid volume broken into pieces at goal half marathon pace and 7-10 straight miles at a slightly slower pace than half marathon pace OR a smaller volume but 5k/10k pace type stuff each week.
Does that sound about right?
again just what i prefer, but i like to fit all three into a week by doing the long tempo during my long run. example:
Sun-18 (6 easy to get warmed up, 8 @ goal HM pace + 10-15s, 4 easy to finish)
Tues- the 5K/10K pace intervals on the track you speak of
OR
10-12 progression run (cutting from HM + 10s down to 10K pace over the second 1/2 of the run)
Thurs- goal HM pace work
people might say "your doing your long run too fast", but who cares. i always end up hammering it anyways, might as well make it more of a "quality" long run;)
my opinion wrote:
again just what i prefer, but i like to fit all three into a week by doing the long tempo during my long run. example:
Sun-18 (6 easy to get warmed up, 8 @ goal HM pace + 10-15s, 4 easy to finish)
Tues- the 5K/10K pace intervals on the track you speak of
OR
10-12 progression run (cutting from HM + 10s down to 10K pace over the second 1/2 of the run)
Thurs- goal HM pace work
people might say "your doing your long run too fast", but who cares. i always end up hammering it anyways, might as well make it more of a "quality" long run;)
Thanks. So that is 3 workouts a week, if you include the long run. That sounds good. I am guessing you sort of switch up the workouts each week but they would be similar in nature.
I think that 8 miles at goal marathon pace may be a bit much and 9-10 definitely sounds like too hard of an effort. My favorite HM workout (which also doubles as a Marathon workout) are what my running partner and I call Alternators. We go back and forth from HM pace to Marathon pace. If you are unfamiliar with your "marathon pace" alternate between goal HM pace and goal HM pace + 30 seconds. For me this looked like:
2 mile warm-up followed immediately by 5:35/6:05/5:35/6:05 and so on. I eventually worked my way up to 7 of each, but I think 4-5 of each is plenty for half. In my opinion, this was a better workout than a simple 8 mile HM pace run.
Anything more than 5 miles straight will tend to feel like an all out time trial once you get around the 1:25 mark for most people.
I have done 8-9 miles but found that's too much. Try up to an hour (50 minutes seems ideal) but at half marthon pace +10 seconds a mile.
Or half marathon pace for no more than half the distance (and even that's starting to push it).
These tips all sound great and really answer what I was looking for. Thanks so much!
And you guys would do one of these workouts per week or two?
One of my favourite HM workouts, although very tough, would be 3 x 5k at goal pace with 2 min recovery (really slow shuffle/jog). I like to do it a couple times when the race is about 15-20 days away as my last really difficult workouts. Would only recommend if you are reasonable experienced.
easy weeks wrote:
One of my favourite HM workouts, although very tough, would be 3 x 5k at goal pace with 2 min recovery (really slow shuffle/jog). I like to do it a couple times when the race is about 15-20 days away as my last really difficult workouts. Would only recommend if you are reasonable experienced.
I am going to try that workout later this week. I learned Saturday that I wasn't in any condition to run a decent 5k off of Half Marathon training. Has this happened to you guys as well?
Was it cold? It's hard to run 5k pace when it is cold.
Separate but Equal wrote:
Was it cold? It's hard to run 5k pace when it is cold.
High 20's.
easy weeks wrote:
One of my favourite HM workouts, although very tough, would be 3 x 5k at goal pace with 2 min recovery (really slow shuffle/jog). I like to do it a couple times when the race is about 15-20 days away as my last really difficult workouts. Would only recommend if you are reasonable experienced.
mwe1978 wrote:
I am going to try that workout later this week. I learned Saturday that I wasn't in any condition to run a decent 5k off of Half Marathon training. Has this happened to you guys as well?
Good, I hope you enjoy it as much as I do. It's a great workout and a confidence-builder.
As for the 5k issues, I don't think I've ever run a 5k off HM training before the HM, but I have run a great 5k a week after a HM PR. I just sort of ran easy during the week in between, and it somehow worked out.
easy weeks wrote:
easy weeks wrote:One of my favourite HM workouts, although very tough, would be 3 x 5k at goal pace with 2 min recovery (really slow shuffle/jog). I like to do it a couple times when the race is about 15-20 days away as my last really difficult workouts. Would only recommend if you are reasonable experienced.
mwe1978 wrote:
I am going to try that workout later this week. I learned Saturday that I wasn't in any condition to run a decent 5k off of Half Marathon training. Has this happened to you guys as well?
Good, I hope you enjoy it as much as I do. It's a great workout and a confidence-builder.
As for the 5k issues, I don't think I've ever run a 5k off HM training before the HM, but I have run a great 5k a week after a HM PR. I just sort of ran easy during the week in between, and it somehow worked out.
That's cool to know. Maybe I will hop in one after this half.