My First Half Marathon - HELP!

I don't think you've lost any fitness. If you can do a 7-mile tempo at 6:26, I'd start out right at that pace. I bet you end up finishing faster than that.

The one risk of a big taper is that you feel absolutely fantastic going 6:10 pace the first mile, like you're jogging, and everything is good until mile 4 or so. Starting off at 6:26 pace and being patient IS being cautious. See how you feel at mile 7-10.

Running up in Kenosha, WI.

Should be about the same weather.

My body liked this little build up. I am a 34 year old father of 3, two of which are 8 month old twins. Time and sleep were not on my side so I tried to get in runs 4-5 days a week with the focus on the long run and solid tempo effort most weeks. With some time opening up in the near future i am hoping to jump up to 50 miles per week by late august and getting in a few more runs. Some will be easier since there will be more.

I really like your 7 mile tempo runs - especially the progression of them. Those are tough ones to get through and that should have you mentally prepared for the grind that is the half marathon. I really think you have a shot at 1:24 low - 1:23 high if you really go for it the last 3 miles.

Good Luck!

reality czech,

Thanks for weighing in. Your advice was super helpful for HM #1 six months ago, so I'm inclined to take your advice again and go out at 6:26 and try to hold on.

WannaRun13.1,

Thanks for your encouraging words. I'm a father of three as well (6, 5 and 2) and they keep me extremely busy, and sometimes sleep deprived. I do hope you come back and update this thread, as well as your own with your results on Saturday. Good luck and have fun.

You wrote: How will this effect my race?

None

You also wrote: Should I adjust my race strategy?

No

You got this. Good luck!

I saw you were running Indy mini after I posted this.

Make sure you get near the front! For some reason Indy allows or puts a lot of slow runners near the front so they can get trampled, unknowingly. It's ridiculous. Seriously. You should be able to seed near the very front with your 1:34 time.

rick sanchez, thanks for the encouragement! Yes, I need to make sure I'm up as far as possible. Thankfully, I'm in Wave 1, Corral B. I believe Corral A is the elite field, perhaps, if one exists. Getting myself free of the huddled masses will be my first concern.

One other thing, if I recall, the track doesn't allow cups on the racing surface, so make sure you are well hydrated before there. The track surface was pretty warm when I ran there, it's kind of a heat island.

Noted! Thanks!

Posted in my original thread, but wanted to post here too. Hopefully your race went well. Looking forward to a recap.

Race recap:

Got out a bit fast, but not overly. 6:30's the first 3. Apparently made a move and ran 6:20's the next few. Not sure how or when that really happened, but pretty sure it caused my struggle the last 3.

Then it started getting hot. Mile marks were also goofy, I understand mywatch being a bit off, but mile 10 was 10.35 on the watch.

Hit 10 around 64:30 and struggled in about 6:35 pace.

Final time 1:25:07 - Strava had it at 1:24:24, so I'll go with that...

WannaRun13.1,

Thanks for the update. I'm glad you had a good race!

On the other hand, I had a terrible race. I just didn't feel good from the very beginning. By way of reminder, my target pace was 6:26, based on running a 7 mile tempo at that pace 2.5 weeks ago. Yesterday, I just never got there. My first mile was 6:40, then 6:30, 6:33, 6:38, and then I blew up. I cannot explain it. How could I run 7 miles at 6:26 pace toward the end of a heavy training cycle, loaded down with cumulative fatigue, and then after a taper, struggle to hit that pace for even one mile? After 4 miles of awfulness, I changed my strategy and tried to run 6:50ish miles in hopes that I'd eventually feel better and pick it up later and still finish with a decent (for me) time. The next three miles were 6:53, 6:58 and 6:46, but I felt terrible and crashed even harder after that. I didn't run another mile under 7 minutes. I finished the race running a string of 7:30ish miles, and crossed the line in 1:31:53, feeling like absolute garbage. WTF happened?

Some thoughts:

1. Bad taper? From 50 miles, to 37, to 24, to 35 miles (including the race). Did my steep decline in mileage leave me sluggish? I hadn't planned to taper so much, but my non-running issue made it impossible to taper as planned.

2. Way off on judging my fitness? This is possible, but then why couldn't I have at least run 6:26 miles for 7-10 miles before blowing up? Why blow up 4 miles in, averaging around 6:35 pace?

3. Just a bad day? I haven't raced enough to know how often this sort of thing happens. Is this why we sometimes see elites struggle inexplicably? They seem to be in shape, but then fall off the pack early, or blow up and/or DNF.

I'm trying not to make myself crazy thinking about it, but it's super frustrating. I worked really hard for these last 4 months and I was so excited to show off my current fitness with a massive PR. The only silver lining is that I still got a PR, despite being totally chewed up and spit out.

Does anyone have any insight? Has anyone else had a performance like this that totally mystified them? Also, I really want the opportunity to capitalize on my fitness and have a good race. How soon do you think I can tune up, and try again?

What was the weather? I'm a couple hours from there, and it was a little humid here. This time of the year it's tough to be prepared for it.

It was 55º at start, and 62º at finish. I didn't feel overheated. I stayed hydrated and poured several cups of water on my head throughout the race.

You either had a bad day, or your workouts were done with too much intensity.

I probably wouln't race another 1/2 for 3 or 4 weeks. A solid week of recovery, a solid week of light training amd a solid week of taper.

I hadn't thought about the workout intensity as a possible explanation. That could be. I'm trying to remember how the tempo efforts during this cycle compared to the efforts at the end of my last cycle (in which I ran the HM at roughly the same pace as my tempo workouts). Something for me to think about.

Sounds more like your mileage measurer for training is off.

DevinChaulk wrote:

It was 55º at start, and 62º at finish. I didn't feel overheated. I stayed hydrated and poured several cups of water on my head throughout the race.

That shouldn't be the reason then.

Thanks again for sharing - will continue to monitor this thread. Good Luck!

WannaRun13.1,

Thanks for the response. I'm eyeing a May 28th HM. I really need some input. Here's the plan tentative plan:

Week 1 - Recovery

M - 5 miles easy

T - 5 miles easy

W - 5 miles easy

Tr - 5 miles easy

F - 5 miles easy

Sa - 8 miles easy

Su - Off

Total: 33 miles

Week 2

M - 6 x 1 mile @ 10k pace

T - am: 6 miles easy. pm: 5 miles easy

W - 5 miles easy

Tr - 6 miles at HM Pace (Is this too much? What pace should I actually run this at? 6:26? 6:40?)

F - 5 miles easy

Sa - 12 miles (how far should I run considering it's 8 days out from the race?)

Su - Off

Total: 49 miles

Week 3

M - 5 miles at HM Pace (open to suggestions here)

T - am: 6 miles easy. pm: 5 miles easy

W - 5 miles easy

Tr - 5 miles easy (Should I work in a second long run here?)

F - 5 miles easy

Sa - 6 miles easy

Su - Off

Monday - RACE

Myself speaking, I would take week 2 easier. You will still be recovering from the half. I wouldn't run faster than M pace on Thursday and substitute a fun Fartlek session on Monday. On the Fartlek, I wouldn't hammer away at any Fast parts. Keep them smooth and don't force them.

12 mile long run should be ok, but keep the intensity down.

Week 3, I don't think I would do 5 miles at half pace on Monday. Instead, I would make Monday, Wednesday, and Friday be 1 mile warm up, 2 miles at Half Marathon Pace +10 Seconds, then 2 miles Cool Down. Get used to going quick, but not so fast so you don't get recovered.

Workouts in this three weeks won't have an immediate benefit, IMO. You have to keep the intensity lower so that you can be recovered for the race. Mix in enough that you'll be used to going quick, but not so much that you'll not recover. Any runs or workouts that you do in this three week period will not be indicative of your fitness level, so if anything feels tough, don't worry about it, back off the pace.