Two Half Marathons, Three Weeks Apart.
Options
sspete
Posts: 2
I am pretty new to running, just starting a year ago, though I am no couch potato -- very, very active for many years, including playing soccer. I trained for and ran my first half marathon last September. Throughout the winter I continued to run on the treadmill, but only did two 5ks a week in addition to my other training. Since spring has arrived I am back outside and starting to increase miles. I am signed up to run a half marathon on September 28, and my husband and I just saw the Myrtle Beach half, which is October 19, and we would really like to run it too. So here is my question for you more experienced runners -- good idea or bad? We are thinking we will be trained and ready for it, but I know we could also be wiped out from the September half. We were thinking of taking a full week of rest, then a light week of running, maybe doing one longer run a week before the half, and then full rest till the half. Advice will be greatly appreciated.
0
Replies
-
I've done it - I think maybe my time was not as good on the second round because of it by about 4-5 minutes but that's not horrible. I have only been running 2.5 years. If I was going to do it again I would not do anything over 7 miles in the middle week between the 2 - but continue to run frequently at short distances - I'm not an expert that has just been based upon my one experience.0
-
I did 3 weeks apart last October/November, i had been runinng a year and 4 months at the time. The October race sucked (chafing issues). I took 2 days off to heal, then went back to normal training. The October race was an 11 second pr, the November race was a 6:30 pr. And i also managed my first sub 27 5k in the 3 weeks between the 2 races. So yes, I think you could do it. You could even possibly give a decent performance at both, if you train for it.0
-
Thanks to both of you for your encouraging replies. I am registering today and I am going to do it!0
-
Depends on a lot of stuff. Do you usually recover from racing easily? Will you be racing both or just running? What is your mileage at? Is 13 miles a breeze for you?
I've ran fulls marathons 4 weeks/6 weeks apart several times. I was a but tired, but I was fine.
I've ran 1/2s 6 days after a full 2x... I was also fine. I've ran 1/2s 6 days apart.. I was fine.
However, none of the above races were PRs or great races for me.
I perform my best when I pick 1 race & focus everything I have on that.
Can you complete both? Yes. Could you perform better if you buckled down & focused on one? Probably.0 -
I'll hop on here and agree with the others. Emphasis on "expectations management." My dance card for halves has been full this year:
16 Mar - PR'd by 9min (last HM was June 2013)
30 Mar - PR by 1min (the one I was focusing my training on)
7 Apr - just for fun
4 May - pacing someone
18 May - playing with marathon pace
If you're chasing PRs, you may hit them, you may not. I'd guess that if you did, it would be very incremental at best and IMO not worth the effort. I think 6mos is a good interval to go all-out race effort for X distance to measure progress, but that's inexperienced me.0 -
this for sure. I've done 1/2s two weeks apart. and marathons a month apart. Its all expectation. I knew it would be unlikely to PR and was focussed on completionDepends on a lot of stuff. Do you usually recover from racing easily? Will you be racing both or just running? What is your mileage at? Is 13 miles a breeze for you?
I've ran fulls marathons 4 weeks/6 weeks apart several times. I was a but tired, but I was fine.
I've ran 1/2s 6 days after a full 2x... I was also fine. I've ran 1/2s 6 days apart.. I was fine.
However, none of the above races were PRs or great races for me.
I perform my best when I pick 1 race & focus everything I have on that.
Can you complete both? Yes. Could you perform better if you buckled down & focused on one? Probably.0 -
I just did a 5k, a 10 mile race and a half in a month, with the long races 2 weeks apart. I managed to PR all of them, but it was hard, and I've barely ran since (I'm a novice runner, usually between 20-30 miles a week). If you want to do it go in with a solid plan, and be sure to watch your diet leading up to it to ensure quick recovery. I still am on the losing weight side of things, but for that month I was eating maintenance in order to really meet my time goals.0
-
Given your age (I'm even older....) and running experience I would say doable (and even, probably, enjoyable) if you treat the first HM as a long run and the 2nd as a race.
Nothing wrong with being adventurous!0
