Two Half Marathons 7 weeks apart?

julie_emma1

Hello all!

I'm thinking about what races I want to sign up for 2014 (nice procrastination from studying ). I've signed up for the Rock 'n' Roll Seattle half on June 22nd, and would like to sign up for the Vancouver Half on May 4th ... but
I am wondering if it is realistic to race 2 HM's 7 weeks apart from one another? I've only done one half in the past, so I am a relatively novice runner.

I realize that I'm planning a long time ahead here, but I like to sign up when it's still early-bird pricing and also the training program that I'd like to do at a local running store (if I do the Vancouver Half) starts first week of January.

Thanks for your advice! :happy:

rduhlir

Honestly, having a HM under your belt, you have an idea of what you need to do to recover and then get back into the training needed to sustain for the 2nd HM. Assuming you use the week after the race to rest, my guess is you can download to whatever week in your training and then just go back up from there. That will not only give you the recovery and gradual build back up that is recommended but will also put you back into the training for the next HM. But that is just my suggestion lol.

I am going to do the Road Race Series and the Greenline Half Marathon which puts 3 HMs within a 2 month period next summer lol

lporter229

I don't think it should be a problem, especially since you have done one before.

SonicDeathMonkey80

Depends on if you're "racing" both, and your recovery time. I think 7 weeks is plenty if you are planning on racing them (and I mean racing as in all out pukefest and want to die after). I'm doing a fairly concentrated amount of HMs, but I'm not "racing" them all - I've got A races and B races. The B races are being done as easy training runs for free vacation time or as a favor for someone.

BrianSharpe

Seven weeks in between should be plenty of time unless you were nursing an injury coming out of the 1st race.

Take a week or so of recovery pace activities and then hop back in to the latter part of your training plan.

arc918

This should not be a problem at all.

My $.02- do not wait until race day to go 13+ miles. Try to do it in training a couple times before race day.

Good luck and have fun!

ka97

Plenty of time. Go for it!

julie_emma1

Honestly, having a HM under your belt, you have an idea of what you need to do to recover and then get back into the training needed to sustain for the 2nd HM. Assuming you use the week after the race to rest, my guess is you can download to whatever week in your training and then just go back up from there. That will not only give you the recovery and gradual build back up that is recommended but will also put you back into the training for the next HM. But that is just my suggestion lol.

I am going to do the Road Race Series and the Greenline Half Marathon which puts 3 HMs within a 2 month period next summer lol

Thanks for the feedback - honestly for my first half, I felt fine after (I did Tough Mudder about 4-5 weeks after) but I am hoping to push myself a lot more in training this time around. At that time, I was mostly just running "to finish"

Good luck with your summer races!

julie_emma1

Depends on if you're "racing" both, and your recovery time. I think 7 weeks is plenty if you are planning on racing them (and I mean racing as in all out pukefest and want to die after). I'm doing a fairly concentrated amount of HMs, but I'm not "racing" them all - I've got A races and B races. The B races are being done as easy training runs for free vacation time or as a favor for someone.

Great, thanks for the input. I would like to "race" both...but I'm not sure about the all-out pukefest part haha. Best of luck with your schedule of copious amounts of races :-)

julie_emma1

Seven weeks in between should be plenty of time unless you were nursing an injury coming out of the 1st race.

Take a week or so of recovery pace activities and then hop back in to the latter part of your training plan.

Thanks - this is helpful as I was wondering how I would go about "training" for the second. 1 week of recovery and then restarting at week 9 or so (14 week training plan) will probably work well. Thank you!

julie_emma1

This should not be a problem at all.

My $.02- do not wait until race day to go 13+ miles. Try to do it in training a couple times before race day.

Good luck and have fun!

Thanks for the 2 cents! In my first race, I think I did 11 or 12 miles as the longest run before my race, and this time around I'm really hoping to do more longer training runs beforehand. Would you recommend 13? 14? or even longer?

julie_emma1

Thanks everyone for your encouraging responses! I've decided to register for the Vancouver Half :happy:

RunnerElizabeth

I just saw this, but I wanted to add that 7 weeks should be enough time. I did two halfs 4 weeks apart back in October and November. I planned that race #1 would be my huge pr and race #2 was just for fun. Race #1 went badly. I beat my pr by 30 seconds, but had no skin left on my legs and wanted to die. So afrer a couple of days rest/healing I decided I was going to make the next race my pr. Four weeks after race 1 I beat my pr by 5:15. Maybe it wasn't a good plan, but it worked for me, 7 weeks seems more reasonable.

mjpTennis

When marathon training, most of the Hal Higdon plans have you race a half marathon 9 weeks before the actual marathon. Given that the training for the half is a little lighter, I agree with everyone else. Good luck.

beeblebrox82

use the 1st one to tune up for the 2nd one.

Spikethered

Im sure it will be fine, I did 2 in 3 weeks and felt fine(I run about 3 times per week.

laurasuzanne2006

definately. I was crazy and did my 2nd full marathon a week after my 1st full. My plan was to race the first one and survive the 2nd. I actually PRed the 2nd one on a hillier course (go figure). My focus during the 5 weeks was recovery not training. I didn't even run the two weeks after the first marathon. You need to listen to your body and take it easy if you need to.

sjp_511

I have a habit of running lots of halfs close together. This past fall I did 3 halfs in 4 weeks, and a 4th one 5 weeks later. If you are well trained, you will be fine. A half marathon doesn't require a lot of recovery. I am also really bad at racing - my races aren't really a much faster pace than my training runs (some of it is training too fast, but I also don't get a good race mentalilty where I push myself any harder than I do during training.)

southerndream24

Like everyone has said, 7 weeks should be plenty of time to do another half. Half marathons aren't as intense as fulls so I don't even take time to recover. I have my butt back out running the next day. I've even done two within 7 days.

sjohnny

This should not be a problem at all.

My $.02- do not wait until race day to go 13+ miles. Try to do it in training a couple times before race day.

Good luck and have fun!

Thanks for the 2 cents! In my first race, I think I did 11 or 12 miles as the longest run before my race, and this time around I'm really hoping to do more longer training runs beforehand. Would you recommend 13? 14? or even longer?

My longest run before my first half was about 11 miles and before my second may have been 12. I've already hit 14 and plan to have several 13s, a couple of 14s, at least one 15 and at least one 16 before my next half in February. I'm working on having an overall higher volume of running before this half.

And I don't think there's any problem with 7 weeks between halfs. I'd probably be likely to just keep increasing running after the first to try to have even more of a base for the second. But I'm new enough at this to not know if that's a bad idea.

Next year I have planned a 10K, 10 mile, two halfs, a 30K, and a full marathon between October and February. I'm interested to see how I do with all that.

likitisplit

http://www.halffanatics.com/

arc918

This should not be a problem at all.

My $.02- do not wait until race day to go 13+ miles. Try to do it in training a couple times before race day.

Good luck and have fun!

Thanks for the 2 cents! In my first race, I think I did 11 or 12 miles as the longest run before my race, and this time around I'm really hoping to do more longer training runs beforehand. Would you recommend 13? 14? or even longer?

If you can run some 14 or 15s, that will only help on race day. I think the key is to stay flexible on your long runs: if you're feeling good than tack on that extra mile or two at the end, if you're not feeling then don't be afraid to pull the plug at 11.

julie_emma1

Great! Thanks again everyone for your input and advice for training. I'm definitely going to try to include some longer training runs this year (as people have mentioned 14-15 milers) but we'll see how my legs feel. I'm looking forward to the spring race season now

dixiech1ck

Totally doable. But then again, I do back to back half marathons (as in one on Saturday and another on Sunday). My body was in marathon training shape so I was able to do this -- didn't have any winning times, but had a GOOD time and it was a good experience in the long run. Good luck to you -- just play it smart and don't really take a lot of rest time inbetween both. Keep up your consistency and stamina.

dorianaldyn

Thanks everyone for your encouraging responses! I've decided to register for the Vancouver Half :happy:

Yay!! You'll be just fine. Can't wait to hear about them.

PeteWhoLikesToRunAlot

As long as you've built up adequate mileage prior, you should have little problem with this. Many people do a long run of 13+ miles every week. Best of luck!

davemunger

If you really want to kill your halfs, do long runs even longer than 13. Like in the 17-18 range. If you have that kind of a mileage base, the recovery will be just 1-2 weeks. So yeah, two halfs in 7 weeks is fine, provided you have a sufficient base.

OTOH if you are undertrained, race #1 will be bad and race #2 will be worse.

arc918

If you really want to kill your halfs, do long runs even longer than 13. Like in the 17-18 range. If you have that kind of a mileage base, the recovery will be just 1-2 weeks. So yeah, two halfs in 7 weeks is fine, provided you have a sufficient base.

OTOH if you are undertrained, race #1 will be bad and race #2 will be worse.

Word!

I always say the best thing that ever happened to my halfs was marathon training...

julie_emma1

If you really want to kill your halfs, do long runs even longer than 13. Like in the 17-18 range. If you have that kind of a mileage base, the recovery will be just 1-2 weeks. So yeah, two halfs in 7 weeks is fine, provided you have a sufficient base.

OTOH if you are undertrained, race #1 will be bad and race #2 will be worse.

Thanks for your feedback, Dave. I really want to do well on my halfs, so hopefully I can get my mileage up that much. Right now, my *weekly* mileage is only about 20 miles...so I have a long way to go.

SonicDeathMonkey80

If you really want to kill your halfs, do long runs even longer than 13. Like in the 17-18 range. If you have that kind of a mileage base, the recovery will be just 1-2 weeks. So yeah, two halfs in 7 weeks is fine, provided you have a sufficient base.

OTOH if you are undertrained, race #1 will be bad and race #2 will be worse.

Thanks for your feedback, Dave. I really want to do well on my halfs, so hopefully I can get my mileage up that much. Right now, my *weekly* mileage is only about 20 miles...so I have a long way to go.

As someone who recently went from 15ish MPW in the summer to 20 in Aug/Sep, and mid-30s since Oct, I can tell you that you will see lots of gains when you hit the 30s. Not that 20 isn't significant, but everything gets better with increased mileage (recovery, speed, endurance, etc).

sjohnny

If you really want to kill your halfs, do long runs even longer than 13. Like in the 17-18 range. If you have that kind of a mileage base, the recovery will be just 1-2 weeks. So yeah, two halfs in 7 weeks is fine, provided you have a sufficient base.

OTOH if you are undertrained, race #1 will be bad and race #2 will be worse.

Thanks for your feedback, Dave. I really want to do well on my halfs, so hopefully I can get my mileage up that much. Right now, my *weekly* mileage is only about 20 miles...so I have a long way to go.

As someone who recently went from 15ish MPW in the summer to 20 in Aug/Sep, and mid-30s since Oct, I can tell you that you will see lots of gains when you hit the 30s. Not that 20 isn't significant, but everything gets better with increased mileage (recovery, speed, endurance, etc).

This is encouraging. I'm currently hovering on the edge of the 30s. I'm between 25-28 mpw for the past few weeks. Looks like I'm just a couple months behind you mileage wise.