Racing back to back half marathons?

lporter229

I have two half marathons on my radar in October on back to back weekends. Originally, my plan was to race one of them (try and PR) and casually run the other, although I never decided which one I wanted to race. As they grow closer, I still can't decide. There are reasons for wanting to race both of them. Is this a bad idea? I have been training pretty consistently over the summer with weekly mileage between 40-50 miles most weeks. The training has been similar to what I would do for a full marathon, only with shorter long runs ranging from 11-15 miles. My A goal for the fall was to remain healthy and fresh heading into spring marathon training. So am I just being foolish here and underestimating the recovery from a half marathon? My last half marathon was in March, but I did not race it for a PR. My time was 2 minutes slower than my PR, but my recovery time was pretty much nil. Just looking for opinions from other runners. Thanks!

TavistockToad

Race the first one, see if you feel recovered enough to race the second?

5512bf

Your mileage is high enough (roughly 180-200 a month?) i'd bet you'd recover quick from the first one. From the runs you post in the challenge thread you do 8-10 mile speedwork sessions pretty much weekly. You'd certainly need to take it easy between the races with several recovery efforts and a few strides but you should be ok. I ran 5 miles the day after my last half with similar base mileage. Also from looking back at the training log I did a 7 mile tempo run at MP on the following Saturday and a 12 mile long run on Sunday for 32 miles for the week.

MeanderingMammal

You know how you'll recover.

To me, race the first and see how you feel. Personally I did a Half last weekend, felt like I was taking it easy but PB'd, then after a reasonably easy week ran an Ultra on Sunday. Perfectly feasible.

Wendy98

I would run the first one and race the second one.

runbabarun

I agree with Wendy, with your high mileage it is a good strategy. If you run it easy to average in the first, it would serve as an easy long to kick of the taper week- you'd have more than enough in the tank to attempt a PR in the second.

lporter229

Thanks for all of the replies.
@TavistockToad - That is the strategy I am leaning towards
@5512bf - I definitely would be taking it easy between races with no speed work. Heck, I am not even sure if I would run very much!
@Wendy98 and @runbabarun -The second one is Columbus, which was my PR full last year. I know it's a flat, fast course, perfect for a PR. But the first one is Dayton. That was my first ever half marathon and my current PR half. It's a new course this year, but supposedly still pretty fast. The nice thing about this race is that the field is small, so I have a better chance of placing in my age group. I was second in my age group the last time I ran it. The other concern is that if I don't race the first, it may be really crappy conditions for the second and I may not PR at all. Oh, the dilemmas we face! LOL

STrooper

I did two marathons on back-to-back weekends. I raced the first one was doing great until mile 23.5 and then hit the wall...hard. I picked up the pace at mile-20 and separated myself from the little group I had been running with since about mile 16. They never caught up with me after I bonked. Finished with a decent time (for me) but was slightly disappointed that all the miles I put in just didn't seem to produce the desired results. Upon reflection, I realized that the first three miles were way faster than I had planned to go and even though I felt like I was holding back, that first three miles probably cost me dearly. It was a cold race at the start, too, which may have physically influenced how I ran and ran with the HM'ers that split of our course at mile-6.

In the week between (it was a Saturday race), I ran 3 miles on Wednesday and 6 miles on Thursday. At the Friday expo, I minimized my time on my feet and on Saturday morning, toed the line in 25°F weather. This time the HM and FM races were separated by a barricade (and different timing strips) and the median of a divided highway for the first mile before we blended together. I intentionally chose a pace that was about a minute slower per mile than what I thought I could run this second race and made sure I stuck to it for the first two miles.

At the first asphalt skating rink, AKA water station, after getting my first drink, I picked up the pace and locked-in on a fairly constant pace for the next 20 miles. We had a tailwind/crosswind from about mile 8 to mile 17 when the winds picked up (something many people were worried about in the hotel before the race), where we turned back into the winds blowing at 25 mph w/ 35-40 mph gusts. When I got to mile 20, I was still progressing into the headwind but I felt more tired than I had at the same point in the previous week when I had increased my speed. I stuck with my pace until I completed the last "uphill" portion of the course at mile-23.

Then my brain went "now!" I accelerated and each mile was faster than the previous one (into the headwind). The last 150 yards of the 385 at the end turned into an all-out-sprint as I set my sights on overtaking five people before I reached the finish line. I crossed the finish line with my heart rate of 199 bpm (the highest I've ever pushed in a race) and a new PR. I knew it was going to be possible to PR at the halfway point and 20-miles, but I was also expecting a real falloff because of the effects of the previous week.

The point is this: I went with the strategy to race the first one and just run the second one because I expected the recovery issues in the ensuing week would not provide me adequate time to recover. But I had also run between 190-210 miles/month in the previous two months in preparation for these marathons (the greatest mileage I had ever put in). It turned out the results were opposite of what I expected and the marathon in the previous week just turned out to be a hard training run for the following week's marathon. The combination of a smarter race strategy and good conditioning allowed the second race to go much better than the first one.

Although the energy management strategies can be less critical than to marathon distances and beyond, I suspect that your training distance will provide you a good base for your recovery. But listen to your body in the week between. Keeping the mileage low, like a last week taper, will probably serve you well.

litsy3

I think on your training you can 'race' both as in 'run them as hard as you can'; it's only a half, not a full marathon, so the worst that's likely to happen is you find in race number two that you don't quite have the energy and power in your legs to run as fast as you did in the first one. It probably won't do you any harm though. All it means is that if you decide on the 'race both' option, then you're pretty much also deciding that your real PR attempt is the first one.

ETA I hadn't read through the whole post above this one before I posted my reply, but had been going to add something like 'even though it's still possible to PR the second one' - I think going in with the expectation that the first one will be faster is quite right, and that you can still get away with not holding back on the second one. Though I just did a half this past weekend and if I did another one this weekend I would be *astonished* if I were faster!

kristinegift

I think you can run them both hard, but only one is likely to be a PR, if that's what you're going for. I did almost the same thing last fall; I did a HM on 10/4 and another on 10/17 and in between I ran 20 miler and had a 50+ mile week. My times were about a minute apart; the first one was a 1:43-something and felt easy and strong; the second was 1:44-something and it felt much harder even though both races had similar weather, elevation gains, etc. However, you probably won't be really sore from either HM since you're in great shape, so if you take it really easy in the week between races (like, don't just keep running your regular heavy mileage, like I did, haha) I think you can manage it and have two good races!

Stoshew71

Last year I signed up for 4 HMs on 4 back to back weekends and earned my Jupiter moon in Half Fanatics.

The first was the Knoxville HM and I ended up PRing it.
The second was the Oak Barrel HM in Lynchburg, TN and was about 4 minutes within of my PR.
The following weekend was our local Bridge Street Centre HM and I ended up PRing again, beating my time from Knoxville by 36 seconds.
By the time I raced my 4th, the Dirty Spokes Georgia Peach Jam HM, I felt a bit beat up but still was able to finish about 4 minutes slower than my PR.

This year I only had 2 back to back. The Oak Barrel HM & Bridge Street HM. I figured that Oak Barrel would be a tougher race since it has a mean incline at mile 4 called Whiskey Hill, so the idea was to take that a little easier. I ended up PRing again by 26 seconds. Then the following week, I beat that time and PRing yet again by about a good 2-1/2 minutes.

Sometimes you never know.