A time limit of 3:15 translates to an average pace of 14:53 per mile or faster. That should be possible for all but the slowest of runners, assuming only that you are in condition to run 13.1 miles on race day.

The thing to know going in is, the game changes between the 10K distance and the half marathon distance. A lot of people can get up to the 10K distance just by running and stretching the distance on their own. When you get up to the half marathon distance, very few runners can complete the race in around an hour. What that means is, you can't run the entire race at lactic threshold unless you're an elite runner.

The translation into training implication is, you need to run your long training runs slow. If you do it right, they will seem agonizingly, unrealistically slow at first. But you do it, because if you run your long runs hard you have a high chance of injuring yourself and not making it to the start line. Obviously, you've got to get to the start line in order to complete the race!

There are a lot of calculators out there that will calculate what your training paces should be, following various training philosophies. One of the prominent training philosophies is the Jack Daniels method; even people who use different methods respect Jack Daniels. Here's a link to a calculator that produces the training paces Jack would recommend:

https://runsmartproject.com/calculator/

You can put in your 5K race result from yesterday, and see what paces Jack would want you to run in training. The one you want to watch most closely is the "E" pace. That's what Jack wants you to do on the long slow training runs.

Other systems may produce slightly faster paces for the long runs than Jack Daniels, but all reputable distance training systems will have you do your long runs much slower than race pace. It's important for avoiding injury, and avoiding injury is vital for completing races.

If you look deeper, you'll see that Jack wants to sell you a training plan for $70. I've never bought his training plans. I paid more than that for group training locally to get to my first half, after coming up injured twice trying to get to a half on my own. The most important thing I learned from that group training was, SLOW DOWN. I can testify from first hand experience that running the long runs too fast is likely to lead to injury!

There are probably free training plans out there somewhere, but I haven't looked for them. I made it to my 2nd through 7th half marathons and my first full marathon without a formal training plan, just doing things I had already learned (including running the long runs slow). The halfs were okay, but I think I would have been better off to have a more structured training program for the marathon. I have a custom plan from my running club's coach that I'll follow to get to Boston 2016; I also have the live coach to talk to about how to adjust it if things don't go as expected. Worth. Every. Penny.

Oh, and did I remember to mention that it's important to do your long runs slow?

jameseylefebure wrote: »

Hey guys,

My best friend and I have signed up for a half marathon in May. We have a time limit of 3 hours and 15 minutes to complete it in

I was just wondering if anyone had an good training tips/websites or schedules we could tryto eensure we're getting the most from our training times. Cheers in advance xx

I typically run halfs, and have a good training plan. I will see if I can post it for you, but if not, I will get it to you some other way.