Half marathon training program questions/advice

3dogsrunning

I am planning on doing a half marathon in February. Right now I am 10 weeks out. The past few weeks I have been doing some longer distance runs. When I mentioned it to a friend in the group, he said he felt it was too early for him to be doing his longer distances, not wanting to "peak" before the race. He suggested maybe I find a program to follow. Most of the ones I can find have the longest run as 9 or 10 miles before the race. Is this normal? I find the idea of still having to cover 4 more miles that I haven't done in training a bit unnerving. Can anyone suggest a good training program?
Right now, I am running about 3 times a week, but I am also doing other cardio, including swimming and biking. In the past few weeks my weekly long runs have been 7 miles, 8 miles, 6 miles, 8 miles, 8 miles, 7 miles, 9 miles, 9 miles.
I did a half marathon last year in Feb and really, really hurt at the end. I did a lot of walking. I will admit that my training was lacking, I didn't get as much training in as I hoped. My goal this year is to finish strong, no particular time goal. I am already running those distances at about a minute and a half per mile faster than last year since I am not walking at all during as I was last year and feel much better than I did last year.
I don't really know how to train for distance. Any advice would be awesome.

bonjour24

sounds to me like you're already doing the distance training, especially if you're up at 9 miles and there's 10 weeks left to go.
i don't know what the general consensus will be here, but i know for me that i want to keep feeling like i'm pushing myself. and because you have 10 weeks left, i'd be inclined to increase my long run by a mile a fortnight. so for 2 weeks i'd run 10 miles, 2 weeks 11 miles, and 2 weeks 12 miles. i'd run 1x 13 miler 3 weeks before the event, then start to taper then (back to 10 miles for the last few weeks i reckon). that way you've already done the distance before the event, but you're not over training.

i used hal higdons half marathon training for novices, but i think you're already past that stage. and most training schedules don't put the mileage as high as the runs- they reckon you don't need it because adrenalin and being part of an even twill help you get through. even on marathon training, most of them seem to have their furthest run at 20 miles- 6.2 miles short of a full.

the other thing you could do would be to join in for full marathon training- that way you've got 10 weeks to really increase the miles, which will make the half feel like a training run!!

before i did my half, the furthest i'd run was 17kms (10.5 miles). and it didn't get any more difficult. it was all hard!!!

mikeyrp

There is no hard and fast rule here - depends on your personal objectives. When I did my first half I built up over about four months - My friend actually had her first a four weeks before mine and we trained together for here - which meant I 'peaked' four weeks early according to the program - basically I kept to a similar pattern of building the distance and then dropping it again for in the interim. In that time we did a full half distance once - and she beat her time. She then ran my half as well - and beat her time again! That was 9th Oct.

Since then I have increased my distance even further - my farthest so far is 18 miles - and I have just done two half marathons on the last two weekends respectively. Both were faster than my first half!

My point? You wont hurt yourself by continuing to increase your distance so long as you don't over train and injure yourself. I would say over 15 miles at a lower speed isn't as good for your time as 12 miles at race pace.

mlb929

My half program training is FIRST from the book Run Less, Run Faster, and it has me running up to 15 miles 3-4 weeks before my race. I've had trouble "peaking" before my races, it's a mental thing for me, which is why I want to run more than 10 miles.. I've ran 15 miles a couple times since my October half, and like knowing I can do it.

Hal Higdon is a good plan to follow as well.

carolinedb

Hal Higdon's Novice 2 program gets you up to 12 miles before your half.

scotrunner

Hello, I did a 12 week training plan for my first half in nov. I used the runners world sub 2.15 programme. I thought it was excellent because included actual speeds so you knew exactly what you should be doing. The longest run I did was 14 miles 2 weeks before the race. I think the more long runs you can do the better so you build up your endurance. Good luck!

Nikstergirl

I used Runner's World Smartcoach for both my 10k and half marathon which were awesome, and using it again for my next half (16 week program, but you can do less than that). I like it because it personalizes your program to your current level, gives you exact workouts to do instead of just "run" and will get you in shape for a race! My long run before my first half was only 12 miles, but I found that was great, I got through the last mile just fine. You can find this program online at runnersworld.com/smartcoach and it's free. Sounds like you are right on track, which is great!!! With 10 weeks left I would expect you'd at least get up to 12 miles a few weeks before and then taper the last couple of weeks. You don't want to overtrain, I think that's almost worse than undertraining!!!!

Good luck! I'm starting my program today for my next half on April 7... can't believe it's only 16 weeks away! I love my first workout... 2 miles "easy"!!!!!! No problem there!!!!

bstamps12

I was unnerved by having 3-4 miles to run in the race that I'd never run before. I am following a training plan now that has me do 13 miles about 3 weeks before the race. I would follow what the second poster suggested with 2 weeks for 11 miles, 2 weeks for 12 miles, etc. if you can't find a training plan that seems to work for you.

3dogsrunning

Thanks everyone. I will check this all out.
I actually have the smartcoach app, but had taken it off my phone. I am going to reload it and see what it comes up with as well.