From one half to another

a_stronger_steph

Hello awesome folks,

I did my first half on Sunday and it went quite well! I managed a time of 1:57:39, despite a brutal hill at 17km that lasted almost 3/4 of a kilometer with a 6% grade. Yesterday I decided to sign up for another half which takes place near the end of October - and is blessedly flat.

So, that's about 20 weeks away. My question is: what's the optimal way to prepare for it? Since I followed (more or less) a training program for this first half, is my best option just to keep up doing weekly long runs of 8-13 miles? Should I gradually ramp those up as well? Or start a new (12 or 16-week) training program (maybe one more advanced than the one I was doing) in a few weeks? I'm thinking since I have a decent base now, it would be best to maintain it and integrate more speed work (I've also got a few 5 and 10k's lined up), maybe. Thoughts? I'm sure many of you string together half or full marathons much more closely than several months apart!

Thanks!!

MartinaNYC

Huge congrats to you! I ran my first half marathon two weeks ago- I was really aiming for a sub 2hrs but ended up finishing in 2:02:23... oh well, still good!

Anyway, just like you, I have my second half marathon coming up at the end of October and I also have a few 10Ks scheduled until then. What happened with my first half is that I decided to sign up for it just 5 weeks before and although I wasn't starting from 0, I think 5 weeks of proper half marathon training were obviously not enough. What I'd suggest you to do is to take it easy for a while (i.e. follow a 10k program to properly train for your 10Ks) and then start your half marathon program in August. The one I will follow is 10 weeks long so I will start it during the second week of august or so.My weekly long run until August will always be 10 miles long though. During these months, you should probably focus more on speed- you got the base, now you need to maintain it and become faster! Also, do you run hills? Although you said that the half in Oct is flat, you'll get much faster if you do hills repeats at least once per week! Last suggestion I always give is to join a running team if you can/want to- I did so back in March and my running improved considerabily! Also, they provide me with a weekly plan so I know exactly what I have to do in terms of daily training.

GOOD LUCK!

CarsonRuns

I would try to get the long runs in the 10-14 mile range and continue to keep your mileage between 80% and 100% of what your peak mileage was during your biggest week of training. Continue to run at that level until 12 weeks out from the race and then start another, more aggressive plan.

I'm going to assume that, based on your finish time, that you peaked at somewhere around 40 mpw. So, for the next 8 weeks, do something like this:

15 (recovery week)
28
30
25
35
38
29
42

Then roll into a new plan.

CarsonRuns

During these months, you should probably focus more on speed- you got the base, now you need to maintain it and become faster! Also, do you run hills? Although you said that the half in Oct is flat, you'll get much faster if you do hills repeats at least once per week!

GOOD LUCK!

I don't agree with this. This is not the time for speed work, it's the time for base building. The HM is 98% aerobic anyway, so building the aerobic base is going to give you a lot more benefit. Speed work can really only be built for about 6 weeks before it no longer has any impact and then it will only really "stick" for about another 6 weeks before you start to backslide. Then you go back to base again.

Also, hill repeats are a strength exercise that should be done prior to the base phase. The type of beating that your legs take from doing hill repeats does not work well with base building phase, so they are usually done during lower mileage weeks. Now, running hills on a regular basis as a part of your easy runs is a totally different story. By all means, seek out hills for your every day easy runs.

arc918

I'm with Carson on this. When it comes to improving running, the general rule is miles, miles and more miles. Most of the easy, a few of them fast.

a_stronger_steph

Thanks for the advice! It sounds like maintaining/increasing my milage is the way to go, then! (My peak for this one, though, was around 25 mpw, not 40! So I'll work on building it up there). And I'll check out some of the more aggressive training plans to adopt 12-weeks away from the race.

I don't do hill repeats currently, but I did start mixing some hills into my long runs once I heard about the route modification that caused that monster hill on Sunday. Sounds like that's a good thing to keep in, then, eh?

Thanks again!

CarsonRuns

My peak for this one, though, was around 25 mpw, not 40! So I'll work on building it up there.

Then you have great potential!

fasterandbetter

Agree with Carson, the more miles you run the better prepared you gonna be, I would slowly increase long runs until you get to 16 miles, you have plenty of time before your next half to get to 40-50 miles per week, you really don't have to follow any specific plan increasing your weekly mileage is all you need.

waskier

Yup. Listen to Carson. He knows what he is talking about.

WhataBroad

Yup, another vote for Carson... keep on increasing and maintaining your base, along with a couple hills along the way for added strength!

a_stronger_steph

My peak for this one, though, was around 25 mpw, not 40! So I'll work on building it up there.

Then you have great potential!

Thanks!! I'm excited to see where the next several years take me with this. Two years ago I couldn't have fathomed actually enjoying running, let alone seeing the sort of progress I have seen.

Thanks again everyone for the tips. Miles, miles, miles. I can remember that!