Half marathon fitness test pre marathon

April is super far away. Race it!!!

SilvioDante0212 wrote:

\How should this week look leading up to the half? Take it easy and to hard in the race or go for it on tired legs? .

I would just do everything you usually do in your week except two days of slow and easy running before race day. The day before the race I would do 3 at the absolute max; just a super slow shakeout run

Cheers - another question I wanted to throw in the there which is probably a whole separate thread entirely is now that I’ve got 20 miles ticked off, should keep trying to do long runs around that distance (it took me 2:44 to run 20.5 miles, all easy pace) or should I look to run 16-17 miles but with a big portion of marathon pace thrown in? I’m thinking the answer is a combination of both? The way I see it, I’ve got 5 good long runs left before I race the marathon and want to make them count.

Beforehand, I would suggest not doing a whole lot different other than easing off a couple days before your race. Not really a taper but maybe four to five miles with a few 100 meter strides two to three days out.

April is still quite a ways off so as long as you don't get crazy, it could be a good tune-up.

Personally I would aim for running the half at you projected marathon goal pace. If you feel good at mile 10-11, crank it up a bit.

This will give you a chance to test out your gear, water stops, pre-race fueling and routine as well.

Give yourself a day or two to recovery as well.

Good luck and keep up posted on how it went for you...

10 at MP before letting rip seems a bit comfortable and was hoping to maybe run it a bit quicker but I see your point. I completed 3 x 5km at what I’m hoping will be marathon pace last week. Half marathon pace currently being 6:25 a mile as I want to have run sub 1:25 to give me the confidence a sub 3:00 is possible. The workout itself wasn’t too taxing but I did take a full recovery (4 minutes) between each 5km.

I ran a half marathon yesterday for the same reason (but slower). I know 1:45 would indicate that my 3:37 target marathon (in April) should be doable. I finished just under target in great running conditions. I ran my regular training leading up to it, including 8 easy miles the day before. Feel OK today and hoping I'll recover fast enough to keep the training going.

Good luck!

Hi Silvio Dante, me too i have a situation similar to your own. A planned marathon in April and a Half on 8march. (But we dont know cos the Corona virus problem).

Anyway to me is good to race the Half Marathon at half marathon pace. For two reason

1) is a real boost of my condition, (No matter how hard I try in training, nothing compare to a real race, and in this case my Lactic Threshold will have a boost)

2) Pushing in the half and not keep the marathon pace goal ( that i can do it in training with no problem, 16 /18 km at MPgoal should be confortable in training, so I dont understand to go in a race and do 21 k at marathon pace goal) will make you understand if you are able to keep the marathon pace goal.Example : You do a sub 1:24 in the half , well you can try to keep a 4:15/km pace in the upcoming marathon and so aiming at a 3hour or sub marathon

So cos you want to push in the half marathon , you need to enter the race with fresh legs, so little tapering and on wednesday (if you have recover the last long run) just a workout not too big in quantity just to activate the memory of your muscle to race pace. Ex 3x1600 at HMpace rec 2'30" or since your last workout was a long run you can do some 5x 800 relaxed without pushing too hard so good 10k pace, or even some 400 to move your legs faster after the last long run. You will see that the next weekend after the Half you will be ready to do any type of workout . But recover well after the half ,sometimes you need 3 or 4 or 5 days dont worry just run slowly till you have totally recover

Go ahead and race it. It's a good chance to remember what it feels like to dig deep in a race, and then you can confidently know that you can run well under your marathon race pace for at least a half marathon.

1. Definitely race it. That will be a better indicator of your fitness (and better predictor of marathon time) than trying to run at what you think might be your marathon pace. The marathon is far enough out that you will recover.

2. You remaining long runs should all be some type of workout. A long fast run, MP miles or MP intervals. Except for the last longer run. You could add a short progression at the end down to MP.

I would race it all out. TBH I don't quite see the point in practicing marathon pace during a half - that can be done during your tempos. I would however practice any areas of weakness from previous events - ie: if you go out too fast, make sure you don't out too fast. Practice your nutrition and fueling. To answer your question about lead up: I would also practice your taper / diet / fueling routine for this half. If you carb deplete and carb load, practice that.

To answer your other question on long runs, I would probably step it back for the next couple of weeks. 20 is a pretty giant long run going into your half. I would say definitely take at least a week off and then rebuild it back up to the marathon date.Then rebuild as you get up to your marathon. Maybe off-17-18-20-20-taper or something like that.

Let it rip! Good luck!

Totally race it, eyeballs out. You're 5-6 weeks out which is plenty of recovery time and you need race practice. Training is a grind and hitting a PB in the half off the back of marathon training feels really good. Running sub-3 will feel much more manageable if you have a 1:22-1:25 HM in the bank

Here is what I did for my LR’s - broke the run into 2 parts: 22 miler would be 11 and 11 etc. ran the first half very comfortable - second half about 30 sec per mile faster EXAMPLE: 3:00:00 marathon 6:52 pace - first half around 7:45-7:50 / second half 7:15-7:25 / this is as much psychological as physical. Mentally it gives you the confidence that you can run faster later during the race - also you finish strong with a little more in the tank

I think you should focus on time on your feet more than anything. So: long warm up, run the race at expected Marathon pace and add at the end another 10k at slow/moderate pace on tired legs. Basically run 35-36k on the day with a half at marathon pace. Worked fairly well for some guys i know in the mid 2.20 range

Thanks for all the responses. Will give it a good go and hopefully come away with a PB in the half. As you say, will be a great confidence boost. After the half I think i'll plan to get some MP in to my long runs. Was thinking of splitting it up so 3km warm up, 2 x 10km at marathon pace, with 2km float say at 8 minute mile pace, 3km cool down for 28km (17 miles with 12 at MP). I've got an 18 mile race 4 weeks out and planned to hit the whole thing at MP as well. March is looking good with 4 really high quality long runs planned. if I tick all 4 off, should be in with a good shot of running well in the marathon. fingers crossed - thanks again for all the replies!

Race it!

I typically do the workout below 3-4 weeks before the race and if it doesn't go well I revise my goal.

4-5 mile warm-up

half marathon at marathon goal pace

4-5 mile cool-down.

Usually about 22 miles

If the 13.1 at goal pace feels difficult before mile 10, you're probably not ready for that pace or a bit overtrained.

For those recommending that Silvio run the half and then add extra mileage to make it a good long run are totally forgetting that he said he is averaging 50 miles a week. So a 20 mile run is 40% of his total weekly mileage which is a huge. So I would not recommend turning it into a long run.

I would race the half however. But like others said take it easy a few days before. 5 days before the race I would still add some speedwork such as 5x1 mile because it is still a training week but you don’t want to go full taper.

Also, if you plan of sticking with 50 miles a week I would try not to do too many 20 milers but increase some of your shorter runs. You might only do a few days of 6-8 miles with that 10 mile tempo so your easy days are pretty short. Try to balance your runs more instead of throwing everything into a long run.

4 weeks before my marathon i raced a half marathon, and then cooled down for 3 miles afterwards. It was that week's long run. If you wanna break 3, I think you need to be sub 1:23 in the half.

This is interesting as I’ve read a lot that overall training volume is more beneficial than the actual long run. But I thought for the marathon it’s got to be the key for the week. I ran 59 miles last week and am hoping to keep it at 60 miles for the next 5 weeks before taper.

i completely disagree with you and would urge you to think outside the box a bit more. In my experience, if you run 20+ miles 3-4 times before the marathon, you're legs will be more prepared to run well versus hitting some huge mileage goal. This is true especially the less fast you are.

I used to run 45-55 miles a week and would do 16-22 miles runs as my long runs for 8 to 10 weeks in a marathon build-up. Why does the percentage matter so long as it helps you adapt and prepare for the race distance? I generally took 1-2 days off per week too and was running around 16-flat for 5ks.

I actually ran 2:32:50 (and 1:12 half marathon) this way and ran under 2:39 the 5 times i've raced a marathon. The fastest marathons were when I was at my fastest for HM's, btw. I never went over 60 mpw, maybe a few weeks at 58 mi.

Why some of you blindly follow training plans instead of actually thinking and doing things by feel is beyond me.

Who the hell cares what the percentage your long run is when you're a 3-hour marathoner?!