As a male in my mid 20's who is on target for a 1:15-1:17 for my first half marathon off of 45 mpw training over the last year (I first started running in early 2012), would it be realistic to have a goal of sub 1:10 if I were to drastically raise my mileage to around 80-100 per week? I would do this gradually over the next several years, of course.
Abraham Blaustein wrote:
As a male in my mid 20's who is on target for a 1:15-1:17 for my first half marathon
WTF does "on target" mean. Report back when you actually ran 1:15-1:17.
Ok, I'll bite.
No one can answer this question without more information. What are your PRs so far? Furthermore we need to know how your first HM turns out. Plenty of people think they are capable of X time and end up running significantly slower than their goal.
I think a realistic goal for drastically increasing your mileage from 45mpw to 80-100mpw would be:
1. A stress fracture
2. Achilles problems
3. Another stress fracture.
Just doing more is not going to make you any better. The part of the training that makes you better is the adaptation process your body goes through in your recovery. If you don't have enough recovery, you will only break your body down. For someone with so little running experience, I doubt you can handle doing 80-100mpw consistently. You might be able to hit one 100mpw and then a couple 30-40's. If you actually run 1:15-1:17 for your first half on 45mpw, you can try to go to 50 (or at the max 60mpw) first and see how you do on that. I bet that you would even improve if you keep on doing 45mpw, since you have so little training background.
If you really want to hit an arbitrary 'magic' number, you should do that. But that better be your main goal because 9 out of 10 times such a drastic increase in mileage is not going to have the desired effect.
Oh and to answer your question. sub 1:10 is realistic in the long term (something like 2 years) if you gradually increase your training load.
You will improve more if you improve slower.
1 min per 5K/3miles extra per week. Thus 1:00-1:02
for 90mpw.
Yeah, oookayyy.
Abraham Blaustein wrote:
As a male in my mid 20's who is on target for a 1:15-1:17 for my first half marathon off of 45 mpw training over the last year (I first started running in early 2012), would it be realistic to have a goal of sub 1:10 if I were to drastically raise my mileage to around 80-100 per week? I would do this gradually over the next several years, of course.
you will get slower since you will need to sacrifice quality for quantity to hit some magic number. Much better to work up to 70 and stay there then slowly add in quality than to slog 100mpw and be slow.
You guys totally missed the part when I said "gradually over the next several years". I'm not planning on starting 100 mpw tomorrow.
And yes, I probably am in shape to run 1:15 - 1:17 based off of some of my workouts:
10k solo tempo in ~35:00
6 x 1 mi @ 5:30 w/ 90s
3x2mi @ 11:10-11:15 w/ 2min
10 mile long tempo in 59:45
1:20-1:45 long runs once a week for the last 10 weeks
Abraham Blaustein wrote:
And yes, I probably am in shape to run 1:15 - 1:17 based off of some of my workouts:
10k solo tempo in ~35:00
6 x 1 mi @ 5:30 w/ 90s
3x2mi @ 11:10-11:15 w/ 2min
10 mile long tempo in 59:45
1:20-1:45 long runs once a week for the last 10 weeks
Yes, with those workouts and 45mpw you should be able to do 1:15, EASY.
To look at potential, we need more information.
What has your progression been? 2012 PRs? 2013 PRs?
Age?
Athletic background? (Hard to believe you were a couch potato for all of 2002-2012 before you "started running.")
Shortly after I graduated from college where I was at about a quality 80 mpw and was a 14:4x 5k and 9:1x steeple guy, I ran a 1:06-high 1/2M. 10 years later when I let little things like a family and demanding job cut my training to 40-45 mpw I ran a 1:18-low 1/2M.
going in the opposite directio wrote:
Shortly after I graduated from college where I was at about a quality 80 mpw and was a 14:4x 5k and 9:1x steeple guy, I ran a 1:06-high 1/2M. 10 years later when I let little things like a family and demanding job cut my training to 40-45 mpw I ran a 1:18-low 1/2M.
Brother, I hear you. I ran 4:06 for the mile indoors not all that long ago, but since then I've aged, been laid off, not been laid enough, and enjoyed too many IPAs to count. I recently ran 1:20 for 13.2 on trails near my home, and it was painful. Crazy how that 6 min pace gets hard - real hard! My suggestion: lose weight, pop mild stimulants (Sudafed) and combine LSD with short speed. All on the forefoot. Peace!
Nwmaster wrote:
going in the opposite directio wrote:Shortly after I graduated from college where I was at about a quality 80 mpw and was a 14:4x 5k and 9:1x steeple guy, I ran a 1:06-high 1/2M. 10 years later when I let little things like a family and demanding job cut my training to 40-45 mpw I ran a 1:18-low 1/2M.
Brother, I hear you. I ran 4:06 for the mile indoors not all that long ago, but since then I've aged, been laid off, not been laid enough, and enjoyed too many IPAs to count. I recently ran 1:20 for 13.2 on trails near my home, and it was painful. Crazy how that 6 min pace gets hard - real hard! My suggestion: lose weight, pop mild stimulants (Sudafed) and combine LSD with short speed. All on the forefoot. Peace!
Is this Tony? Shoot, I admire you, man. World record holder, hands raised high in jubilation.