My First Half Marathon - HELP!

rick sanchez,

Thanks for your help. You don't think that doing 2 miles at HM pace +10 seconds, 3 days before the race will be too close? I'm not skeptical, just want to make sure. Also, given all that, what should my target pace for the race be? Should I play it safe and go out at 6:35-6:45 or resume where I felt my fitness was 3 weeks ago (6:26 or so)?

I've uppen pace as you described above albeit different pace and completely folded best to stick at one pace and that pace should be slightly conservative.

Op needs to do more races that how you get better at pacing them

This seems like a bit much to me. I would probably go with:

M - 5 miles easy

T - Off

W - 5 miles easy + 3 x 200m ( or 40 sec) Pick ups/Strides

Tr - 6 miles easy

F - 4 miles easy

Sa - 8 miles easy - maybe cut down the last 2-3 miles into 7:00-6:45 pace if you are feeling good.

Su - Off

Total: 28 miles

If you are feeling good from last week, then get in ONE workout this week.

M - 5 miles easy

T - 5 miles easy

W - 6 x 1 mile @ 10k pace

Tr - 6 miles easy

F - 4 miles easy

Sa - 12 miles easy - middle 3-4 can be a HM pace+10 sec if your legs are responding well.

Su - Off or 5 miles easy

Total: 42-47 miles (added warm up and cool down miles to the workout)

M - 5 miles

T - 6 miles easy

W - 8 miles easy + 3 x 200m ( or 40 sec) Pick ups/Strides

Tr - 4 miles easy

F - 5 miles easy with 1.5 miles at HM pace (hit 6:35 for the first mile then work to 6:25 the last half mile)

Sa - 5 miles easy

Su - Off

Monday - RACE

Good Luck.

DevinChaulk wrote:

rick sanchez,

Thanks for your help. You don't think that doing 2 miles at HM pace +10 seconds, 3 days before the race will be too close? I'm not skeptical, just want to make sure. Also, given all that, what should my target pace for the race be? Should I play it safe and go out at 6:35-6:45 or resume where I felt my fitness was 3 weeks ago (6:26 or so)?

I've regularly done 2 miles at HM Pace +10 seconds 2 or 3 days before a HM. It should be relatively easy to recover from. If you feel concerned, cut it down to a mile. There's no absolute best solution, just a number of solutions that could work.

I'm probably not the best person to take HM pace advice from. I regularly go out very conservatively through 8 miles or so. Then I stop looking at my watch and just start picking people off. I usually negative split by a minute or more. My vote would play it safe and go 6:40 through 8, then race it out for position from there. It's funner that way. Even at 6:40 pace, it would still be a big PR for you.

Thanks for everyone's responses. I've put together a plan based on bits and pieces of everybody's suggestions, and I hope it will have me ready for a good race. I'm going to take a more conservative approach, and start out at 6:40 pace, as suggested, and see how I feel later in the race.

I ran 5 miles on Monday, and 5 miles this morning (took Tuesday off) and I feel fantastic. Legs were a little sore on Monday, but they felt great today. I think because of the slow pace of the race on Saturday, I didn't actually tax the system too much. Hopefully by mid-week next week I'll be ready to introduce some faster running. I don't think it will be a problem.

Thanks again for people who are tracking with me and helping me with this. Sometimes Letsrun.com is actually a constructive place...sometimes. :)

So, I've been tentatively planning to run a Memorial Day HM (May 28th). That's 23 days after my last HM. Here's what the last week and a half has looked like. I feel like I need some insight.

M - 5 Easy. Felt surprisingly fresh. Slight quad soreness.

T - Off

W - 5 Easy. Felt good. No soreness.

TR - 6 Miles with 3 Strides. Feeling good.

F - 4.5 Miles Easy.

Sa - 8.3 Miles Easy. Felt good. Wanted to run further, but played it safe.

Su - Off

Total: 29 Miles

So far this week:

M - 5 Miles with 7 little fartleks. Nothing too crazy. Felt good.

T - 6 Miles Easy.

W - 5.6 Miles (4 Mile Tempo). 6:38, 6:41, 6:46, 6:48. This was tough. I honestly though it would be easier.

What does that last workout tell me about my current fitness? Am I still recovering from the HM race on the 5th? Is that why it was so tough? Or, is that just how fit I am right now? I have a week and a half to tune up and race. What should I expect?

I'm planning to run today and tomorrow easy (5 miles or so) and then a 12 mile run on Saturday. I was hoping to throw in a 3-4 mile tempo (as suggested), somewhere around 6:50-7:00 pace in the middle of the run if I'm feeling good. Then the last week, do something like this:

M - 5 Miles (2 miles at 6:50ish)

T - 6 Miles Easy

W - 5 Miles (2 miles at 6:50ish)

TR - 5 Miles Easy

F - 5 Miles (2 miles at 6:50ish)

Sa - 6 Miles Easy

Su - Off

M - RACE

Any help with race strategy would be so appreciated. This is uncharted territory for me (bad taper leading to a bad race, then trying to tune up real quick for a re-do).

And honestly, is this just a bad idea? Should I just chalk up my bad race to a learning experience and enjoy some unstructured summer running and reload for a Fall HM?

DevinChaulk wrote:

M - 5 Miles (2 miles at 6:50ish)

T - 6 Miles Easy

W - 5 Miles (2 miles at 6:50ish)

TR - 5 Miles Easy

F - 5 Miles (2 miles at 6:50ish)

Sa - 6 Miles Easy

Su - Off

M - RACE

What are the runs in race week meant to accomplish? You won't get any fitness/adaptation from them in time for the race. I would change TR to 2 miles easy or just don't run. Either way do some plyos. Change Sa to 4 miles easy plus strides (fast). And on Su do 1-2 miles easy plus strides (fast). Some fast but not fatiguing sprints the 2 days before a race do good imo.

Well, I decided this weekend that I am not going to run the Memorial Day Half Marathon. I just don't feel like I'll be ready. I'll try again this Fall.

In the meantime, I have a mile road race June 7th that will be fun. So, I'll tune up real quick for that and do about a month of easy running before I jump into HM training for a November half. Might race a 5k sometime in June or July to set my training paces.

Thanks for all the input and help folks provided. Take care.

Just ran by first ever half and really benefitted from going out conservatively and not really pushing too hard and letting the race come to me as it were. I know some will try to go out hard and hold on, but there is so much time to pick up time in a half.

I went into last week's HM with a firm time goal (hoping for sub-80 minutes). So instead of letting the pace come to me, I was at goal pace from mile 1. But the weather wasn't in my favor (high wind). So I was grinding for 10 miles before the wind wore me down, and I finished off my goal time.

Now I'm in a similar situation - some low-key 5K's and a mile race for me while I decide what to do for a fall race. I'll try to fit in one or two mile-specific workouts before the mile. Good luck - the mile is a fun distance to race, and I wish there were more chances to run it around here.

I saw this thread while looking for something else and am so grateful.

Ran 1:45 for my first half a few years ago, then 1:39 last fall. Shooting for 1:35 at Cap City and then the Cbus full this fall.

Hoping for 3:30 or better as a first-time 'thoner. Cbus is similar to Indy Monumental from what I've heard, and it's a BQer.

For my 1/2 training I never went more than 36mpw and still managed to break sub-1:40 on little training, not much more than 6 hrs. of sleep a night and a poor diet. It gives me hope that if I fix these things I can get faster. My training paces by the time I ran Cbus last fall were down to 7:30 or slightly faster, and the actual 1/2 pace was 7:34.

Once I get things under 7 flat pace I'll feel like I'm truly getting the most out of my talent.

I know this is an old post, but I had a similar experience and it was indeed down to racing through those tempo training runs. You can do 7 miles in training at HM goal pace, but that isn't a guarantee you can get to 13.1 on race day. This probably becomes even more of an issue as you improve and can summon greater efforts in training. Time, distance, and pace are great metrics, but heart rate or some other measure of intensity needs to be factored in as well.

EPMD wrote:

I know this is an old post, but I had a similar experience and it was indeed down to racing through those tempo training runs. You can do 7 miles in training at HM goal pace, but that isn't a guarantee you can get to 13.1 on race day. This probably becomes even more of an issue as you improve and can summon greater efforts in training. Time, distance, and pace are great metrics, but heart rate or some other measure of intensity needs to be factored in as well.

Thanks for the insight. I'm planning to run a Fall half-marathon (probably November) and I think the name of the game for me will be staying healthy. That means training at my current fitness level (instead of where I want to be), and giving myself enough recovery throughout the build-up.

I'd still like to hit 1:24-1:25, but I would also just be happy to PR. I'm 39, and I'll be 40 by the time the race comes around. I only have so many years that I will be improving before age begins to really catch up with me.