Training Advice

jameseylefebure

Hey guys,

My best friend and I have signed up for a half marathon in May. We have a time limit of 3 hours and 15 minutes to complete it in

I was just wondering if anyone had an good training tips/websites or schedules we could tryto eensure we're getting the most from our training times. Cheers in advance xx

MobyCarp

A time limit of 3:15 translates to an average pace of 14:53 per mile or faster. That should be possible for all but the slowest of runners, assuming only that you are in condition to run 13.1 miles on race day.

The thing to know going in is, the game changes between the 10K distance and the half marathon distance. A lot of people can get up to the 10K distance just by running and stretching the distance on their own. When you get up to the half marathon distance, very few runners can complete the race in around an hour. What that means is, you can't run the entire race at lactic threshold unless you're an elite runner.

The translation into training implication is, you need to run your long training runs slow. If you do it right, they will seem agonizingly, unrealistically slow at first. But you do it, because if you run your long runs hard you have a high chance of injuring yourself and not making it to the start line. Obviously, you've got to get to the start line in order to complete the race!

There are a lot of calculators out there that will calculate what your training paces should be, following various training philosophies. One of the prominent training philosophies is the Jack Daniels method; even people who use different methods respect Jack Daniels. Here's a link to a calculator that produces the training paces Jack would recommend:

https://runsmartproject.com/calculator/

You can put in your 5K race result from yesterday, and see what paces Jack would want you to run in training. The one you want to watch most closely is the "E" pace. That's what Jack wants you to do on the long slow training runs.

Other systems may produce slightly faster paces for the long runs than Jack Daniels, but all reputable distance training systems will have you do your long runs much slower than race pace. It's important for avoiding injury, and avoiding injury is vital for completing races.

If you look deeper, you'll see that Jack wants to sell you a training plan for $70. I've never bought his training plans. I paid more than that for group training locally to get to my first half, after coming up injured twice trying to get to a half on my own. The most important thing I learned from that group training was, SLOW DOWN. I can testify from first hand experience that running the long runs too fast is likely to lead to injury!

There are probably free training plans out there somewhere, but I haven't looked for them. I made it to my 2nd through 7th half marathons and my first full marathon without a formal training plan, just doing things I had already learned (including running the long runs slow). The halfs were okay, but I think I would have been better off to have a more structured training program for the marathon. I have a custom plan from my running club's coach that I'll follow to get to Boston 2016; I also have the live coach to talk to about how to adjust it if things don't go as expected. Worth. Every. Penny.

Oh, and did I remember to mention that it's important to do your long runs slow?

steph2strong

Your training schedule will depend on where you are starting out from. Are you new to running, running 5 or 10 km races, running long distances already?

My training schedule for a half marathon would look like this:
Day 1: 1 hour interval speed training
Day 2: 1 hour hill repeats/training
Day 3: 10 km
Day 4: lower body weights and either cross training cardio (rowing or biking) or 5-6 km.
Day 5: rest day
Day 6: long distance run (my usual was 18 km, then I would increase gradually to 21 km pre-race, if you are starting out with only a 10 km base then make the long run 12 km and progress weekly from there)
Day 7: upper body weights and either cross training cardio (rowing or biking) or 5-6 km.

Ensure you foam roll out your legs on almost a daily basis. This will significantly enhance muscle recovery. (research published on this.... People who worked out for 70 minutes and then had a massage (vigorous deep tissue) showed a marked increase in their muscle cells' energy production, and a decrease in inflammation in the cells... foam rolling is the same thing.... this study was actually conducted by my father, we just wanted to put some science behind the subjective feeling that massage helped us after tough exercise!)

MrWilson6

jameseylefebure wrote: »

Hey guys,

My best friend and I have signed up for a half marathon in May. We have a time limit of 3 hours and 15 minutes to complete it in

I was just wondering if anyone had an good training tips/websites or schedules we could tryto eensure we're getting the most from our training times. Cheers in advance xx

I typically run halfs, and have a good training plan. I will see if I can post it for you, but if not, I will get it to you some other way.

zmcgrandles

Hey,

I'm training for my first half marathon up in Edinburgh, I got a training plan with ASICS, they get you to type in a recent race result that you've done, what time you want to do the 1/2 marathon in and when it is, you can then edit the plan quite easily and switch days round. Only just starting it but the plan looks quite straight forward.

https://my.asics.com/gb/en-gb

jameseylefebure

@zmcgrandles Are you doing the Edinburgh marathon? That's the half I've signed up for!!

zmcgrandles

@jameseylefebure Yeah, doing the 1/2 marathon only signed up Tuesday!! What time did you put down for it?

jameseylefebure

@zmcgrandles I put 3hours, thought I'd give myself the fullish timetable with it being my first

zmcgrandles

@jameseylefebure I went for 2 hours 45 minutes thought I'd give myself something to aim for that didn't seem out of the realm of possibility.