HM plan built around HM-paced intervals (4 x 2 miles).

Three days of running each week, or three days of (harder) running workouts?

Intervals at 10K pace are a good thing

So you are not doing a long run

You could easily do a "long run" of 8 -10 miles in the time it takes you to do 4 x 2 miles including the rest periods... Alternate that in a couple of times in your lead up to the half-marathon to help you feel more confident.

I'm curious about the mentality of runners like this. You care enough to come on a running message board and think hard about your workouts. You clearly have a goal race in this half marathon. Yet, you don't care enough to run more than 3 times a week and proclaim that a long run, probably the key thing to race a good HM, is out of the question. Why even run the race?

I would think based on your time goal, three speed focused workouts would be sufficient for the half training (assuming on SOME of your non-running days you're lifting, biking, swimming, or something). For the other two days, I'd recommend 40 minute tempo runs - some at sustained pace (probably like 7:40 pace?) some with HM pace "surges."

The same theory could probably work for a full-marathon as well, since your longest run would be 18-ish miles. I'd recommend running more than 3 times a week though, unless your 'goal' is just to finish the race.

If you do only want to run 3 days a week, and are ruling out a long run for some reason, then I personally would go with a short fast intervals session, maybe 20x200m or 10x400m, and a tempo run/cruise intervals on the other day.

The point of easy runs is to recover and increase mileage, you have chosen not to do that, so they don't fit in your 'plan'.

Three running days, two or three x-training days per week. It'll be a modified FIRST plan.

Definitely. I'll alternate my HM-paced intervals with a progression run. It'll peak at 12 miles, the last 3-4 around HM-pace.

A good question. There isn't room in my life for more that 40 miles a week, but that doesn't mean I'm not interested in running effective workouts. If I were willing to do more than 40 miles a week, a Daniel's-like program would be best, I agree. I'm not convinced that it's best if you're running fewer than 40 mpw.

Yes, I'll be doing some cross-training. Good point: the 4 x 2 will be a total of 11 miles and the 4 x 4 will be 19 miles. Has it been proven that "length of longest run done in training" is somehow a worse predictor of HM/M success than weekly mileage? The goal will be to do the HM/M at the pace that I trained at in my 4x2/4x4.

Thanks! I'm interested in these short fast interval sessions (as you would probably expect), what do you recommend for rest between intervals? Jogging, walking, or standing rest?

The 4 x 2 will be a total of 11 miles, and I'll do progression runs every other week that will peak at 12 miles.