6 X 1 mile repeats -- avg 5:39/5:40 -- half-marathon race coming up

If you can do 6xMile avg 5:40 with 1 minute recovery there is no doubt you would go sub-1:20.

When I ran 1:17 half I was doing much slower Mile repetitions - 6xMile with 1 minute jog recovery starting with 6:10 and only on the last or two repetitions hitting similar times as yours (usually progression was like 6:10, 6:00, 5:50, 5:45, 5:40, 5:35) . I was doing around 60 mpw at the time. My easy/long runs were slow, never faster than 8:00/mile pace and often around 8:30-9:00.

However I also did one running economy session per week of 4-5 x (200-200-400) with recovery 2-3x longer (speed on the fast part was around mile race pace). If I did 200 in 36sec than recovery would be around 1min 20sec (all jogging).

Last 4 weeks before half marathon I introduced 6x1000 intervals at 5k-3k pace in my training but still were doing Mile repetitions.

Partridge wrote:

I understand that many runners over here take their interval workouts easy with plenty left in the tank. However, if you really tried to test yourself it would be possible to run this workout at about 10 k race pace. This would put the OP around 36 min, just a bit better than his 17:40 5 k and just in line with a 1:20 half marathon.

You might want to re-check your math. He averaged 5:39 on those miles, so even if he was running those at 10K race pace, that's a 35:00 10K, not 36. That translates to like a 16:50 and 1:18:00.

The post you replied to is indeed a little too over the moon about those workouts. A year of solid training can accomplish a ton.

However, but maybe this is your point, a freshman showing up and running 3-4xMile at 5:20 is exceedingly rare and would usually be in the context of a kid with a very active, athletic background. A 14 year old boy that hasn't done much in the way of sports just popping up at XC practice and ripping out a 3xMile at 5:20 would be an extreme outlier exception. A one kid in the country a year or less type phenomenon.

Raysism wrote:

Partridge wrote:

I understand that many runners over here take their interval workouts easy with plenty left in the tank. However, if you really tried to test yourself it would be possible to run this workout at about 10 k race pace. This would put the OP around 36 min, just a bit better than his 17:40 5 k and just in line with a 1:20 half marathon.

You might want to re-check your math. He averaged 5:39 on those miles, so even if he was running those at 10K race pace, that's a 35:00 10K, not 36. That translates to like a 16:50 and 1:18:00.

Ok, it is exactly 35:10. So I underestimated a bit (didn't actually calculate before). But another point of my post, you simply cut that out from your quote, was that a lot of inexperienced runners miss the time which would be in line with their 5/10 k PR easily by 5 or sometimes 10 minutes...

The OP has enough mileage and regular long runs. But he misses on continous efforts like long tempo runs, and that might be a problem if he tries to run hard for 80 minutes.

Not all high school XC coaches bother to participate on letsrun. Let's ask all the high school XC coaches with a 9th grader capable of doing said workout to let us know. I am guessing coaches with 9th grade boys able to do said workout will stay quiet. Coaches to do not place unnecessary pressure on said 14 or 15 year old boys. For some reason Wayzata High School, suburb west of Minneapolis seems to produce said boys on a regular basis. Stillwater Area High School near Wisconsin border had a several years of producing said boys. [What was in city drinking water, Stillwater, MN is now in Wayzata's drinking water!]

Partridge -- I don't do a ton of these longer steady state/tempo runs at high effort. I did run 21.1k in 1:22:42 after an easy 5k warm up though. I ran this workout, as I wanted to satisfy myself that sub 1:20:00 is possible.

I ran every k in better than 4 mins -- I need to average 3:47 to break 1:20:00 -- and ran the last 3k in 3:42/3:43. It was a hard effort, but wasn't going all out, and still had a bit of gas in the tank at the end. The half is in two weeks. I'm looking forward to giving it a go.

Thanks again for everyone's input.

So has this half marathon happened yet or what?

brain paint wrote:

With those mile repeat times, I think you might be able to go 1:18. Your main issue is lacking seasons and seasons of distance training. You might not be able to keep pace for over 13 miles as a result. But those repeats are faster than I run and I've completed several sub 1:20 halfs. My two cents.

I agree. I’d manage about 5:50/6:00 and I’m a 1:21 (old) guy.

jgc551Tashacole5 wrote:

Hi there,

I ran 6 X 1 mile repeats today with 90 seconds rest: 5:46; 5:31; 5:38; 5:42; 5:38; 5:42. I am curious to know if a sub 1:20 half in three weeks is a reasonable goal based on my fitness.

Some other details:

-I'm 29 and am new to running as of November 2018. At that time I ran my first 5k with virtually no training in 20:51.

-I ran a 17:41 5k on July 1, 2018.

-I've gradually increased my mileage since starting in November from around 30 miles a week to an average of about 75/80 miles over the last two to three months.

-I run easy 15-18k three times a week; two workouts (e.g. 6 X 1 miles repeats; 12 X 800m; etc.); two easy 10k runs (doubles); and one long run of 25-30k.

Thanks!

8/10

well played sir

you can do 63 minutes for 10 miles, on that. so 120 half is bang on.

if you have a good day, you're in.

when I ran a high 1:17, I would have struggled to complete that workout (given the short rest), but I also a 17:0x at the time, so I've got no idea.