Trying to Knock as Much Time as Possible off Half Marathon time in One Month

pocketdooz

Hi,

I'm doing the Connemarthon Half Marathon in exactly one month from now. Yesterday I ran the route and did it in 1.58 - ran the whole way without stopping but the time is quite slow.

I am hoping to put in some serious training and effort in the next month to attempt to knock as much time (close to 20 minutes) off this time as possible and am hoping some people on here may be able to share their wisdom and offer me some advice as to - training plans / diet / rest times etc.

Thanks !

opus

From what I've read it takes two weeks for any training you do to have an effect on your overall fitness so you've only two weeks or so from now to really improve your performance. I've never seen a half marathon program of less than 12 weeks (although haven't looked very hard) so based on your current level of fitness I'd suggest going with the final 4/5 weeks of one of them.

The only 1/2 marathon program I tried was from Runner's World which a few people though was a bit too tough with its long runs but maybe you could pick one of them and work with it.

TFBubendorfer

The whole basis for the question is silly. There is no 4-weeks to a half marathon program for a good reason. Distance running is a long-term thing.

If you start training a lot now, you'll just end up tired on the day.

If you're serious about running a good time, wait for next year and start training a few months in advance.

Having said all that, on race day you will have the adrenaline running through your system and you can expect to run a good bit faster than in your training run.

Krusty_Clown

Along with Opus'/Thomas' advice: You would be better off aiming to try and improve as much as you can over the next four weeks, rather than improving by 'x' minutes in four weeks time.

You'll probably gain a couple of minutes from running in a race environment, with water stations, support, and other people to run with/against. Try and do a mid-week run (4-5 miles) at a pace faster than 9 min/mile (your current race pace). Stretch your long runs over the next weekend or two to 14/15 miles at a slower pace than your current race pace (9:30 - 10:00/mile). The weekend before the race cut the distance back to 8 or 10 miles. Take it easy in the days leading up to the race, sleep well, and stay well hydrated. When you get over the top of the final hill, build your speed gradually as you approach the finish line, so that you hit the finish line at the fastest speed you can manage, with nothing left in the tank.

ger664

Going from a 1:58 to 1:38 for a half aint goint to happen easy and definitely not going to happen over 4 weeks.

Best advice is rest up and take it easy between now and then and just go for it on the day.

Krusty_Clown

ger664 wrote: »

Best advice is rest up and take it easy between now and then and just go for it on the day.

Not sure why anyone would rest-up/take it easy four weeks before a half marathon. Not necessarily the best advice.

pocketdooz

Thanks for the advice folks.

Please keep it coming. I'm not going to rest for a month - I don't think that is a good idea at all. I will train hard for the next 2-3 weeks and then rest up the week before the race.

Opus - thanks for the link, some good stuff on there.

TFB - You may have misread / misunderstood my post - I just ran a half marathon 2 days ago and I'm hoping to shave minutes off my time over the next month. I never asked for a 4 weeks to a half marathon training program. I was more looking for ways to improve speed (drills etc), rest advice, nutrition advice, leg weights etc.

Krusty - I will try your and follow your advice - much appreciated.

.

Gringo78

A little more background probably neccessary....how's training been going, what kind of training sessions & paces have you been doing for the last 12 weeks, any recent races which would suggest a better half time than 1:58?

If 1:38 is to be possible, and assuming that you feel you have the training in the legs for it already, a bit of central governor resetting might work for you.

Try a session of 3 x 2 miles with 4min recovery (walk or jog) between each rep. Try 8:15 pace per mile for first rep, then 8:00, then 7:45. if you can cope with that, then maybe the week after try 8:00, 7:45, 7:30. If you hit that, then one week out from the HM try it again with 7:45, 7:30, 7:15. Completing the week 1 paces should be tough enough and maybe beyond you if you were really stretched to do the HM in 1:58.

Have you been doing any hill work or easy runs on hills? If not, then you would certainly benefit from a bit of hill work over the next 3 weeks.

pocketdooz

Gringo78 wrote: »

A little more background probably neccessary....how's training been going, what kind of training sessions & paces have you been doing for the last 12 weeks, any recent races which would suggest a better half time than 1:58?

If 1:38 is to be possible, and assuming that you feel you have the training in the legs for it already, a bit of central governor resetting might work for you.

Try a session of 3 x 2 miles with 4min recovery (walk or jog) between each rep. Try 8:15 pace per mile for first rep, then 8:00, then 7:45. if you can cope with that, then maybe the week after try 8:00, 7:45, 7:30. If you hit that, then one week out from the HM try it again with 7:45, 7:30, 7:15. Completing the week 1 paces should be tough enough and maybe beyond you if you were really stretched to do the HM in 1:58.

Have you been doing any hill work or easy runs on hills? If not, then you would certainly benefit from a bit of hill work over the next 3 weeks.

Background: I've been running about 6/7 miles, three times a week for about the last 3 months. Pace has usually been around 8 minutes per mile. I did a 15k run about 4 months ago 1.11.19 so that would suggest 20k in 1.35-1.45 is possible. What is central governor resetting?

There is certainly some benefit to the drills you have suggested - I will look into that - should that improve my lactate threshold?

I will have to do more hill-work too - lots of tough hills on the Connemarathon course.

Anyone got any suggestions for hills in Dublin, I live in the city centre - there are some in the Phoenix Park I know.

.

tHE vAGGABOND

There are plenty of hills in the phoenix park, short ones and longer ones..

Im also doing the half down there, and I have been doing hill work in the park at weekends, the Kyber is a popular one, I would normally work that into a run doing it a couple of times at least..

there are a few good shorter hills on the right after you enter the park from Parkgate St entrance, in the park near Garda HQ - good for "sets of short and hard" hill sprints..

But there are many hills in there all over the place in there..

There is nothing amazing hill wise in the rest of dublin city center. I use the run up from Dolphins Barn and up to KCR kinda direction, but its a long, gentle hill - but best of a bad lot really

rainbow kirby

Knockmaroon Hill and Chapelizod hill road. Go nuts

TFBubendorfer

pocketdooz wrote: »

TFB - You may have misread / misunderstood my post - I just ran a half marathon 2 days ago and I'm hoping to shave minutes off my time over the next month. I never asked for a 4 weeks to a half marathon training program. I was more looking for ways to improve speed (drills etc), rest advice, nutrition advice, leg weights etc.

Ok, but the fact remains that there is very little that can be done to improve over 4 weeks. It just does not work that way, improvement is a very gradual process.

1:58 isn't THAT slow, btw. It will comfortably put you into the top half.

ger664

Krusty_Clown wrote: »

Not sure why anyone would rest-up/take it easy four weeks before a half marathon. Not necessarily the best advice.

In general no but if OP has only ever done this distance for the first time yesterday then he will need a rest week this week and will also need an easy week the week before the race. This leaves him 2 weeks training for which to improve his time. Regardless of what training is done in those 2 weeks its not going to significantly impact on the time at this stage. So taking it easy will getting them to the start fresher and injury free.

From extra info supplied I would think OP would do well to break 1:45 but should break 1:50.

Krusty_Clown

ger664 wrote: »

In general no but if OP has only ever done this distance for the first time yesterday then he will need a rest week this week and will also need an easy week the week before the race. This leaves him 2 weeks training for which to improve his time. Regardless of what training is done in those 2 weeks its not going to significantly impact on the time at this stage. So taking it easy will getting them to the start fresher and injury free.

From extra info supplied I would think OP would do well to break 1:45 but should break 1:50.

I can't see how resting up/taking it easy for four weeks is going to help. In fact I think it would be counter-productive, as you will lose speed and endurance (the two key ingredients for a half marathon). But everyone's built different, and what works for you, may work for others. Out of curiosity, do you typically rest up for four weeks before most races?

ger664

Krusty_Clown wrote: »

I can't see how resting up/taking it easy for four weeks is going to help. In fact I think it would be counter-productive, as you will lose speed and endurance (the two key ingredients for a half marathon). But everyone's built different, and what works for you, may work for others. Out of curiosity, do you typically rest up for four weeks before most races?

No i would not rest 4 weeks before a half marathon but neither would I have ran a 13 mile race pace run four weeks prior to my goal race.

Gringo78

ger664 wrote: »

No i would not rest 4 weeks before a half marathon but neither would I have ran a 13 mile race pace run four weeks prior to my goal race.

I think the point here is that the OP is quite obviously someone with little previous race experience so we do not know whether his 13 mile run at the weekend was race pace or not. In fact it quite probably was not. He has a 15k time which suggests capability of a HM in the region of 1:40. Without knowing what his training was prior to that 15k (i.e had he trained before the 15k?) his capability could be a lot more.

Initially the predominance of 6/7mile runs at 8min per mile and the lack of long runs would suggest he would be stretching things to run 1:38 which would be a 90sec per mile improvement. But it would just be a 90sec improvement over a solo training run. Actually, since he's regularly running 6/7 miles at 8min/ml pace he could well be capable of a HM at 8min/ml or better pace in a race atmosphere.

To say you will not get a training effect 4 weeks out from a race is not correct espectially for an inexperienced runner. I mentioned the central governor in a previous post, half in jest, but what I meant was for an inexperienced runner, running a tough interval session can 'reset' what the mind thinks is fast. This is one reason why a runner who joins a club and does a few track sessions can improve quite rapidly even after only 2 or 3 track sessions...because when pushed they suddenly realised what they're capable of. Its not the physical training from the track session, that would take maybe 3 weeks to come through, its the mental training & realisation of what they're actually capable of. Breaking time barriers in races is the same...breaking 4 hours for a marathon, breaking 50min or 40min for a 10k....its acheived much easier the next time.

So if you have 4 weeks to a race and have not been doing any speedwork or interval sessions then a quality hard session could see big improvement. For the OP, he seems to train at the one pace all the time so 4 weeks could see a huge improvement. Even in the last week before the marathon, a run of 5 easy miles with 10xstrides would not stress him but would mentally make HM pace seem a lot easier so you can even improve while resting.

Of course, if you've been following a HM plan with all the facets of quality training included like intervals, tempos, hills, strides, LSRs, B races, then the possibliity for a 'leap' in improvement in the last 4 weeks is a lot less.

pocketdooz

Gringo78 wrote: »

Of course, if you've been following a HM plan with all the facets of quality training included like intervals, tempos, hills, strides, LSRs, B races, then the possibliity for a 'leap' in improvement in the last 4 weeks is a lot less.

I haven't been - thanks very much for the info. I was in the Phoenix Park this morning doing hill training - I haven't done any in the past so no doubt if I do some hill training over the next 2/3 weeks this will assist.

I'm also building in some speed work - was up at 6am yesterday doing 4 sets x 4 mins on the pitch near my house @ 90% HR max with 3 mins rest between sets and then into the swimming pool for c.30 mins of pool work. Then went for a 5 mile run at pace last night.

I'm going to continue with the hill work and speed work and some long distance runs (6-9 miles) at 8 minutes per mile for the next 2 weeks which will bring me up to 10 days before the race.

Will probably look for advice then on the best way to prepare in the 10 days leading up to the race.

Thanks to all who replied and offered their advice.

Any further comments would be much appreciated.

.

pocketdooz

Well, tomorrow is the day - followed all the advice on here, thanks very much for that. Hopefully should be able to shave 10-15 minutes off my time from last month tomorrow.

Does anyone have any last minute preparation tips, specifically regarding:

- What to eat tonight?
- How to best prepare today (run/food/sleep/stretch etc),
- How to prepare tomorrow, the morning of the race,
- What to eat / drink on the course (lucozade tablets, the goo's etc)

or any other advice, would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

.

hf4z6sqo7vjngi

pocketdooz wrote: »

Well, tomorrow is the day - followed all the advice on here, thanks very much for that. Hopefully should be able to shave 10-15 minutes off my time from last month tomorrow.

Does anyone have any last minute preparation tips, specifically regarding:

- What to eat tonight?
- How to best prepare today (run/food/sleep/stretch etc),
- How to prepare tomorrow, the morning of the race,
- What to eat / drink on the course (lucozade tablets, the goo's etc)

or any other advice, would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

.

How did you go fellow PP:)

pocketdooz

Hey mate, I did it in 1.55 so cut 5 minutes off my time. Not too bad but not as much as I expected. The hills at miles 10 and 11 really took it out of me - next year I'll do better !

hf4z6sqo7vjngi

pocketdooz wrote: »

Hey mate, I did it in 1.55 so cut 5 minutes off my time. Not too bad but not as much as I expected. The hills at miles 10 and 11 really took it out of me - next year I'll do better !

A pb is a pb and 5 minutes of your best time is a decent result. I am pacing the 1:50 half marathon in GLR if you want to knock another 5 minutes off:)

ger664

pocketdooz wrote: »

Hey mate, I did it in 1.55 so cut 5 minutes off my time. Not too bad but not as much as I expected. The hills at miles 10 and 11 really took it out of me - next year I'll do better !

Well done. An improvement on your previous effort. You will get your times down if you start a 12-16 week training program there are several available.
You should start to slowly build up your mileage base so use a novice program. This is where you got caught yesterday, while you can knockout 6-7 8 minute miles its a different ball game to do it for 13.

There are several halves in September/October to aim for as your primary goal and run a few 10K's over the training period.


It has taken me 3 years several marathon/half marathon and 10K programs to get my half time down from 2:00 to 1:45 so slowly but surely.