Forums >Racing>Goal of sub 1:40 half.
Now that my summer "speed" session is over, had a decent 1st week of marathon training and finally got a legit long run in this morning with a 13.5 miler. over the eight weeks I sacrificed a little on the LR and weekly distance in favor of faster runs / races. But at this point need to forget about the speed as much and make sure get the distances up.
Was a little slow, as running for third day in a row. Last year used to rest before longrun, but going for the "LR on tired legs has more benefits"... We will see. Woke up this morning and getting out of bed my legs were stiff and knew would be a long day, took a good 1 mile to loosen up and pretty much easy pace in the 9:35 - 9:50 range, which was last years MP, but seems so slow now. Legs are a bit soar this afternoon as its amazing in a few weeks a 13 miler will not even phase me ... the body is an amazingly adaptive machine.
10 miler in 3 weeks, jeeze the summer is flying by. Hopfully can extend my 10k pace to the 10 miler distance and probably going out @ 7:45 pace - 1:17:30. Myy 2009 gaol was just sub 1:28:00 and ran this race in 1:36:00 last year, so should be big improvement over last year. That time puts me within theoretic shouting distance of 1:40 half with a projected 1:42:50. With only 4 weeks between the 10 miler and my fast Half Marathon 9/13 ( 9/26 - akron will most likely be a MP practice run for 10/18 Columbus unless I am really close to sub 1:40 by then) not a whole lot of time to reduce pace while increasing distance.
Sub 1:40 may not be in the cards for fall 2009, but defintly spring 2010. I think may be a late half, they call it Fall classic but November in Ohio usually means Winter.
"It's supposed to be hard. If it wasn't hard, everyone would do it. The hard... is what makes it Great!
So...not a great week for me. I actually ended up going to the hospital on Tuesday after my run for dehydration. You can read all the details in my run notes. Bottom line even if it doesn't feel hot outside you should still probably take in some fluids if you plan on running for a couple hours (and even though I know this I didn't ). Kind of spent the rest of the week trying to catch-up from that. Looking forward to getting things back on track this week.
Simon nice week, lots of miles!
Buckeye nice to see you're blowing your 2009 goals away.
Suspect Zero
Yikes kmark - hope you're able to recover well. I'm bad about hydration and generally just try and tough things out. Your warning is well taken.
Finished up a decent week for me, just under my goal of 60 miles (56.5). Legs have felt pretty shot most of the week so I just did all easy runs.
This coming week I'm going to do a track session with some 1000 intervals at 10k pace, my usualy med/long run mid week and on the weekend a med/long run with some LT runs thrown in at the end to round it out and make it a long run.
Looking forward to and dreading the track workout. I don't have much experience with them, any pointers are welcome.
I'm bad about hydration and generally just try and tough things out.
I've always done that as well, except in rare cases and then I made a point of stopping at home to grab some water or running where I can hit the fountains. Just decided to gut this one out and it didn't work out so well. Everythigns fine now though.
As for the track workouts a couple things:
1. Approach the intervals one at a time, don't think about how many more you have to do, just be in that interval and focus on it.
2. Don't run your first couple intervals too fast, just enjoy the fact that they are not killing you.
3. The 2nd last interval is the hardest.
Good luck!
I have also heard from a good source that if you run the intervals too hard you may peak too soon; in other words if you hammer them hard in July you may peak in September, and be a little past your best for a race in October. So adjust the effort level to the date of the race.
Congrats on a good week, Mr.I. Buckeye, the 10 miler will tell you a lot about whether you are ready to run 1:40 in the half.
Another tough week on my schedule, ran 18k with 10x100m strides tonight, Friday is 10 miles, 4 at 9:00 pace and 6 at 7:30-7:45, easy 8 miles Saturday then 20 on Sunday. I think my training plan may be a bit ambitious for my abilities!
Simon.
PBs since age 60: 5k- 24:36, 10k - 47:17. Half Marathon- 1:42:41.
10 miles (unofficial) 1:16:44.
Well, what a difference a week makes.
This past week has been the best training week of my life (75km).
3 quality workouts:
1. 7x1000 @ HM pace with 1:10 (recovery jogs)
2. 16km run with last 6k @ HM pace+15secs/km
3. 10km tempo run @ HM pace, New 10k PR for me
All 3 easy runs this week were at least an hour as well.
I started using the plan that Dakota was talking about a couple paes back and really am enjoying the challenge of it.
Bah. I missed my med/long run last week and had to move some things around. Got two quality sessions in though - intervals which went well and a long run on a super hilly course. 14.5 miles - only about 17 minutes worth was flat. Started on a one mile downhill and finished by climbing back up. I knew that one mile climb was going to suck and was surprised to learn that it sucked even more than expected.
This coming week should be pretty solid. My work schedule is pretty condusive to a decent week of training. I'm racing a 10k on Saturday and I'm expecting big things there. I'll do intervals on Tuesday and a med/long on Thursday and the rest of the days easy 60-80 min runs.
Finaly got above 40 MPW this week!
Had two good runs with a 10 mile progression run Friday and then coming back with a 14.5 mile Longrun Sunday @ 9:30 pace and last 5 miles I was picking up steam and could have put in a few more.... felt good.
Need to figure out best place to get a 16 miler in either wed or thur, since will be running same 10k as Mr Inertia so need to balance; how soon I hit another longrun after Sundays and having enough time before 10k. Need to get up to at least 16 this week as already a few miles behind on my longrun distance, as want to get up above 18 soon to get at least 3 - 20 milers in before 10/18 marathon.
Probably should not be racing a 10k, but feel that my 49:35 PR is a least few minutes to high and do not want to stare at 49:35 till next May. Will probably be a few minutes behind Mr I, but shoooting for 47:00ish. 9:00AM start and weather actually be hot (go figure 2nd week of aug), so hopefulling heta is not too big of factor, but I am an anit-freeze baby and not a very good warm weather racer.
Probably looking at 1:42 - 1:43 right now for 9/13 half, so need to find 2 - 3 minutes over the next 5 weeks!
Beware, batbear...
2014 Goal -- Run 5X per week, pain-free (relatively) by end of summer.
Just wondering, how are you guys figuring your half-marathon pace? I'm training for a 9/12 half, and my long runs are at about 10:30 or so pace, but are on some pretty significant hills. The half I'm running is also hilly, but nothing like what I'm running in my training. I guess I'm just going to do it by feel, but I'd kind of like to know what to expect so I don't start too fast or panic if I go out and at the first mile they say I'm going at a pace significantly faster than 10:30.
I think based on your past 6 months runnning and believe your 5k time was around 24:00ish, I think a 9:15 - 9:30 pace may be a good start. If training at 10:30 pace then 9:30 will not feel that uncomfortable. After 3 - 5 miles see how you feel?
HM pace is the max I can hit during my training runs for anything longer than 2 miles. On your next medium long run, after a 2 mile warmup, run 3-4 miles comfortably hard (not all out), where you are breathing pretty hard but not racing and then cool down/finish your run. The pace you hit during that 3-4 miles will be pretty close to your Half pace. This makes it a pretty good Tempo workout as well.
Not sure what's the grade is like on your training route but garden variety 2-4 % grade hills don't really slow you down as much as everyone thinks. You regain about 80-90% of the time lost on uphills on the downhill.
Not sure I agree with this, may gain some time back, but you do not gain 80 -90 of the effort exerted on the uphill, which is the key. Also if you try to rgain the time on downhill the pounding on quads gets you latter.
Personally, anytime lost on uphills is gone and try to maintain effort, then on downhill back at race pace (not faster) and just take it easy and relaxed, so regaining the extra effort is the key ... or just BS. but thinking I am getting a little effort break is at least mental benefit. If you push too hard on downhills it can hurt you just as much as the uphill.
I'm pretty sure the hills that I'm running are greater than 2-4% grade. At least one that I run regularly is a monster. How does one calculate the gradation of hills?
Elavation change / Distance
ex - 100 ft elavation increase / 1000 feet would be a 10% grade. So if you map it out you should get the elavation profile, which none are 100% accurate especially going over bridges as I am pretty sure elavation is of the land not the road.
One race was an out back over a bridge that crossed a river and was probably a 5 % grade but profile showed a drop in elavation, as if I ran down to the river and back up the other bank.