Half Marathon Predictor/Workout

I did 3x2 miles at goal pace with 1:30 jogging recovery. About 3 weeks prior to my HM. Ran the race within 2 seconds/mile of that workout.

Long workouts of mile intervals, like 6-10 at half marathon pace with 1:00-1:30 rest are great to complement traditional tempos, allowing you to accumulate more miles and/or hit slightly quicker paces. I believe they are also much less neurological taxing than long tempos at HM pace, which I no longer try to do week-in and week-out.

As for increasingly specific workouts that can serve as predictors, with short rest like 1:00-2:00, 4x2 miles on pace is a great HM workout and shows you're probably ready if you can finish it in control.

Complete 3x3 on pace with 1:30-2:00 rest, without going to the well and I'd bet good money on you holding that in a race. Do this at least two weeks out, though, because it's near a race effort. Good luck!

Lots of good advice above. Before I broke 1:20 the first time I did the 3x2 workout and it was a great indicator. You can also try a marathon indicator workout, like Yasso 800s, to see where you're at. If you can do 10x800s at 2:45, you should be able to break 1:20 no problem. Best of luck!

8km hard tempo. Borderline TT depending on how well you can push yourself. Whatever pace you can hold for that is your race pace.

Run a 400

Rest as long as you ran

repeat 9 more times.

Your average time is your half mar-mar time

30 mins or better wrote:

8km hard tempo. Borderline TT depending on how well you can push yourself. Whatever pace you can hold for that is your race pace.

No way you can count on racing that pace.

Predictinator wrote:

Run a 400

Rest as long as you ran

repeat 9 more times.

Your average time is your half mar-mar time

Really? As a 4:40 miler, I can do 10x400 in

adjuster wrote:

30 mins or better wrote:

8km hard tempo. Borderline TT depending on how well you can push yourself. Whatever pace you can hold for that is your race pace.

No way you can count on racing that pace.

wanna bet? I've only done it about 5 times.

While on subject...

Hs boy 16 yrs old. Done at 6000 ft altitude.

Monday - 12 miles at 6:17, hilly course.

Tuesday - tempo 6 miles @ 5:51 pace

Etc, etc.

About where is he for a half run at sea level?

Note: is an endurance based. Runs only 27 200, 58 400, 4:49 1600

Old fat guy wrote:

While on subject...

Hs boy 16 yrs old. Done at 6000 ft altitude.

Monday - 12 miles at 6:17, hilly course.

Tuesday - tempo 6 miles @ 5:51 pace

Etc, etc.

About where is he for a half run at sea level?

Note: is an endurance based. Runs only 27 200, 58 400, 4:49 1600

What's the etc etc? The 12 miles is too fast or the tempo too slow.

Seems pretty balanced as far as speed/endurance goes.

Half at sea level? Probably right around 5:50 pace plus or minus a second or two.

A good predictor workout would be 13.1mi at goal race pace.

young master wrote:

Long workouts of mile intervals, like 6-10 at half marathon pace with 1:00-1:30 rest are great to complement traditional tempos, allowing you to accumulate more miles and/or hit slightly quicker paces. I believe they are also much less neurological taxing than long tempos at HM pace, which I no longer try to do week-in and week-out.

As for increasingly specific workouts that can serve as predictors, with short rest like 1:00-2:00, 4x2 miles on pace is a great HM workout and shows you're probably ready if you can finish it in control.

Complete 3x3 on pace with 1:30-2:00 rest, without going to the well and I'd bet good money on you holding that in a race. Do this at least two weeks out, though, because it's near a race effort. Good luck!

^

this is your answer

Thanks, all.

I did 6x1mi with 2min rest yesterday: 6:15, 6:07, 6:06, 6:04, 6:00, 5:56. 3-5 felt really effortless and smooth, 6 required a calm mind to stay relaxed, but was by no means a race effort. This was the best workout I’ve had in a while, and I’ll be doing this again with 90s rest: 120s seemed a little long, but I was being cautious since I’d never strung together 6 intervals at this pace before. The warm-up 6:15 probably helped a lot, too. I am tempted to try 7 or 8 repeats in the future, especially if I do them as cut-downs like this.

I have few more of these longer t-pace workouts coming up, both interval and 6mi 6:15-6:25 runs, along with a good amount of time at marathon goal pace (6:30-6:40), and I’ll cap it with the 4x2mi with 75s rest. If I can hold 6:00-6:05 on that without riding the struggle-bus, I will have the balls to roll off the line at 6:05-6:10 and try to negative-split a 1:1x half. For me, these predictor workouts are half-mental… I’ve never blown up and positive-split a road-race, so I need the confidence to get out quickly and make it happen.

I did 4x2mi today, with 90s walking/jogging rest. Splits were:

6:07

6:07

6:07

6:04

So, 1:20 seems possible, but no gimme! It'll probably come down to weather - this morning was mid-60s, humid, and sunny, with a light breeze. Not 100% perfect, but not bad at all, and probably what to expect on race day.

It was a very hard workout, for sure, but I finished each repeat with controlled form, breathing, and effort. HR was pretty steady at 85-88% of max. I'd say I finished feeling about how I expect mile 10 or so of the race to feel - starting to be really excited to finish, but not running on fumes yet.

I'm pretty good at running on effort, but if I feel that I need help from my watch I'll be shooting for 6:10 for the first mile, and then hopefully dropping from there.

If I hold this in the race, I'll split back-to-back 10k PRs. There are zero flat, cool 10ks around here, so my 10k PR is very soft.

don't listen to him wrote:

Predictinator wrote:

Run a 400

Rest as long as you ran

repeat 9 more times.

Your average time is your half mar-mar time

Really? As a 4:40 miler, I can do 10x400 in

He means your pace for 400 is your total time in minutes. So if you could do 10 x 400 @ 70 w/ 70 sec recovery you could run a 70 min half marathon. Makes sense a little more now right? Only problem is that it doesn't take into consideration the aerobic development of the athlete. So assuming you are aerobically developed this workout can be accurate while also not as taxing as some of the others listed.

Hello!

Looking for some insights and helpful inputs. I'm planning to run my 4th HM in 3.5 weeks. I had the opportunity to follow many valuable comments here on predicator workout to identify goal pace. I'm currently running 65km/week.

Please could you indicate if my goal pace based on below results is reasonable:

1. 3x2miles with 2 min recovery all three done @ 4:30 min/km pace.

2. 8k tempo run @ 4:35 min/km (7/10 effort)

My HM intended goal pace is 4:45 min/km or am I being too optimistic?

Appreciate any suggestions, thanks!