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Improved my 1/2 marathon time by 7 minutes

tnrunningnurse
tnrunningnurse Posts: 549 Member
in Social Groups
I ran a 1/2 marathon in March and my time was 1:54:30. I was not happy about that time. I have never been a big fan of speed work, but after joining a gym to add weights into my workout routine, I decided to give speed work on the treadmill a try. I ran the Country Music 1/2 yesterday and finished in 1:47:12. I couldn't believe it. First of all the CMM 1/2 was much hillier and the temp was much warmer than the 1/2 I did in March. Guess what???? I am a fan of speed work now.

Replies

  • ebaymommy
    ebaymommy Posts: 1,067 Member
    I hate speed work too, but there's no denying it helps. I took 18 minutes off my 1/2 marathon PR and I'm sure speed work has a ton to do with it. Each and every week when I go out for my speed work I go out with a grouchy attitude and I always feel like I'm going to die by the end but it does help. I like that Kelly Clarkson song, "What Doesn't Kill You Makes You Stronger." Totally applies to speed work in my opinion!
  • onlyhalfcrazy
    onlyhalfcrazy Posts: 114 Member
    What type of speed work are you doing? I am willing to do what ever it takes to break 2 hours!!! Your help is greatly appreciated!!
  • ebaymommy
    ebaymommy Posts: 1,067 Member
    What type of speed work are you doing? I am willing to do what ever it takes to break 2 hours!!! Your help is greatly appreciated!!

    If you follow a training plan most of them have some speed work built in.

    http://www.halhigdon.com/training/51130/Half-Marathon-Training-Guide

    Hal Higdon's Intermediate and Advanced 1/2 marathon plans both have speed work built in. I'm following a different program for a full marathon and it has me doing 1 speedwork session a week.
  • what923
    what923 Posts: 100 Member
    Yup, yup and yup! I'm a grump when it comes to speedwork and it always feels so impossible. But my plan called for speed work and tempo runs just once a week and I also took 7 minutes off my PR at my half a couple of weeks ago. Definitely using the same plan to try and PR my 10K and try to hit under 2 hour for a half. You guys are really fast- quite an inspiration. Love seeing fellow runners improve. It's all about pushing ourselves to go farther or faster.
  • lilsmiley11122
    lilsmiley11122 Posts: 11 Member
    Congrats on your PR, that's amazing!!! Like a couple others, I'm working towards a sub-2:00 half... thanks for motivating me to do more speedwork! :-)
  • onlyhalfcrazy
    onlyhalfcrazy Posts: 114 Member
    Thanks for the help with the speed work. Definately implementing some into my route!!
  • Jonathanfales
    Jonathanfales Posts: 38 Member
    2 halfs over 2 hrs and then I incorporated the insanity dvd into my routine and smashed the 2 hr mark 3 different times. Im down to 1:44:00 and this all took place over about 3 to 4 months!!!
  • brandyk77
    brandyk77 Posts: 605 Member
    Good quality speed work does suck to do but man, it pays off.

    same course last year:

    1:53

    This year

    1:42:27
  • essjay76
    essjay76 Posts: 465 Member
    2 halfs over 2 hrs and then I incorporated the insanity dvd into my routine and smashed the 2 hr mark 3 different times. Im down to 1:44:00 and this all took place over about 3 to 4 months!!!

    Awesome!! I actually got my half marathon down 9 minutes over the last few months. My main focus has always been on full marathon training and I just recently discovered how much I love running the half! So my improvement came mainly from increasing my mileage by quite a bit slowly, not really doing any speedwork.

    However, I'd like to change that. Now that I'm at a comfortable mileage base I want to get back to a weekly speedwork session. I also just started Insanity. How often did you do it? How did you incorporate it with your training? My last half mary was right at 2:00:02, only 3 darn seconds away from a sub 2! I have the endurance, I just need to work on speed now, but don't want to injure myself by doing too much Insanity as well.
  • essjay76
    essjay76 Posts: 465 Member
    I ran a 1/2 marathon in March and my time was 1:54:30. I was not happy about that time. I have never been a big fan of speed work, but after joining a gym to add weights into my workout routine, I decided to give speed work on the treadmill a try. I ran the Country Music 1/2 yesterday and finished in 1:47:12. I couldn't believe it. First of all the CMM 1/2 was much hillier and the temp was much warmer than the 1/2 I did in March. Guess what???? I am a fan of speed work now.

    Congrats on your huge PR! I'm sure the weights also helped some. Did you do any speedwork on a track as well?
  • DFWTT
    DFWTT Posts: 374
    What type of speed work are you doing? I am willing to do what ever it takes to break 2 hours!!! Your help is greatly appreciated!!

    I'm absolutely despise fartleks and have no idea why. Currently I focus on negative split miles, meaning every mile is faster than the last. On speed days of say 4-5 miles, short distance, my speed can increase up to a full 1.5 mph by the end. Someday fartleks will be my new best friend...someday. BTW, I start out trying for about point 2 mph under my current fastest race avg and have improved times every race, 10K. We'll see how the half pans out in June.

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