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Running faster for longer

  • 23-11-2010 3:14pm
    #1
    AdpRo
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,936 ✭✭✭


    Hi All

    Looking for a little advice. I've done 3 half marthons in the last couple of years with a best time of 2hrs 8 mins. Over the last couple of months I've started back running again and have been doing 2 or 3 five mile runs a week (all around 9.30 pace), I'm doing a couple of 10K races before christmas as well where I hope to finish in around 55 mins. The main aim is to break the 2 hours at a half around march or april next year and MAYBE go on and do DCM!!

    My plan is to continue with the five milers for the rest of the year and then in Jan start adding longer weekend runs starting at 7 and building up to 11 before a half.

    I could easily go out and run a 8.30 mile and probably even keep that pace up for a 2nd mile but in order to break 2 hours for a half I need to be able to sustain a 8.45 / 9.00 pace for 13 miles! From reading here and other sites in order do that I need to be doing 2 things 1) Fartlek runs 2) Hill sessions. For the fartlek runs I have started to run hard for 1 minute during the 2nd, 3rd & 4th miles of my runs, hopefully I will be able to increase this to 2 or 3 minutes over time. However I'm not sure what I should be doing for hill sessions. Last night I went to a hill near where i live, it is reasonably steep and about 300 metres long. Starting at the top I jogged down it and ran hard up it 5 times without stopping, using the downhill part to get my breath back. If I do this once a week and try to build it up to doing it 8 - 10 times in one session should this help improve my pace and make it easier to get up any hills in the actual races!

    Sorry for the long winded post but I'm just not sure I am on the right track, maybe I just need to loss weight (i'm almost 100Kg's) and build better levels of basic fitness by keeping doing the 5 mile runs and I will eventually be able to sustain the faster pace over more than 2 miles.


Comments

  • #2
    RayCun
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 15,704 ✭✭✭✭RayCun


    Weetabix wrote: »
    Over the last couple of months I've started back running again and have been doing 2 or 3 five mile runs a week (all around 9.30 pace),

    It will take longer to improve if all your runs are over the same distance, at the same pace. If you do three runs a week
    • make one of them a longer, slower run, to build endurance. 6 miles this week, 7 next week, building gradually up to at least HM distance
    • In one of your other 5 miles runs, run 3 of those miles at a faster pace. Whether that's a fartlek session, or 800m intervals, or just a slow one mile warmup, three miles at under 9m/m, and a slow warmdown
    Or just pick a goal race in a couple of months,and find a training plan for that distance. Any decent training plan will include that kind of variation, and will build towards your goal.


  • #3
    ThePiedPiper
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,643 ✭✭✭ThePiedPiper


    Weetabix,

    Raycun gave very good advice there that would be applicable to anybody aiming to improve their times.

    I'd suggest that your weight will hold you back a bit. 100kg is quite a lot of weight for long distance running. Using an online calorie calculator, a 100kg individual will burn 1,900 calories in a half marathon versus 1,320 for a 70kg person. That's a lot of extra effort.


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