first half marathon - plan of attack

conavitzky

Hi guys. Hoping some of you might look over my typical weeks training at present and offer advice on how to tweak it for half prep. Currently running 6 days. Lsr of 22k sat. Rest sun. 10-12k easy pace mon. Club tuesday intervals typically in recent weeks 3x1.7k , 3x1.25k off 300m jog recovery. 10-12 easy wednesday. Club Thursday 1.7k steady, 10-14 hill repeats of 300m with 100m recovery With 1.7k steady.10-12 easy Friday. Depending on how the body feels on easy days I will shorten to 8k if needed. Club session's do vary slightly up to 6x1.7k at the top end.
In case any of you wondering the gravel track is slightly longer than 400 and there is a smaller track also of just over 300. I am thinking of dropping one of the club sessions for a tempo? Half is at the end of september. All opinions welcome

T runner

conavitzky wrote: »

Hi guys. Hoping some of you might look over my typical weeks training at present and offer advice on how to tweak it for half prep. Currently running 6 days. Lsr of 22k sat. Rest sun. 10-12k easy pace mon. Club tuesday intervals typically in recent weeks 3x1.7k , 3x1.25k off 300m jog recovery. 10-12 easy wednesday. Club Thursday 1.7k steady, 10-14 hill repeats of 300m with 100m recovery With 1.7k steady.10-12 easy Friday. Depending on how the body feels on easy days I will shorten to 8k if needed. Club session's do vary slightly up to 6x1.7k at the top end.
In case any of you wondering the gravel track is slightly longer than 400 and there is a smaller track also of just over 300. I am thinking of dropping one of the club sessions for a tempo? Half is at the end of september. All opinions welcome

Slowly increasing weekly overall volume sustainably will help.

What time are you aiming for?

You could swap a tempo for alternate sessions every week. So tempo replaces tuesday on week 1 and thursday on week 2.

Maybe Build tempo up to 60% race duration.

Possibly, Bring your long run up to 25k over a couple of weeks.
Then you could do every second week at a faster effort: eg 16 -> 20 k steady tempo.
Or progress the long run to finish at race pace. Lenght of run gives endurance, race pace at end teaches the body to run at HM on tired legs.

Your thursday session can be tweaked.

I may be doing a session this weekend for HM. Its 10 min tempo flat ground, 10 min hard on hilly course (strong on all hills but recovering while running fast), 10 minute tempo flat ground (off 2 mins jog). Progression by increasing duration of all sections.

The hilly section will make the legs strong, and the last tempo effort will teach the legs to run around race pace while tired. (similar to end of progressive long run above)

With your thursday session..If you were to increase the duration of the steady effort, before and after...(What pace is the steady 1.7 before and after your hill reps?) possibly bring it close to tempo and reduce the number of hill reps, you could replicate this.

The week should be sustainable, so judge sessions accordingly. This way you can slolwy increase mileage while slowly evolving sessions.

conavitzky

T runner wrote: »

Slowly increasing weekly overall volume sustainably will help.

What time are you aiming for?

You could swap a tempo for alternate sessions every week. So tempo replaces tuesday on week 1 and thursday on week 2.

Maybe Build tempo up to 60% race duration.

Possibly, Bring your long run up to 25k over a couple of weeks.
Then you could do every second week at a faster effort: eg 16 -> 20 k steady tempo.
Or progress the long run to finish at race pace. Lenght of run gives endurance, race pace at end teaches the body to run at HM on tired legs.

Your thursday session can be tweaked.

I may be doing a session this weekend for HM. Its 10 min tempo flat ground, 10 min hard on hilly course (strong on all hills but recovering while running fast), 10 minute tempo flat ground (off 2 mins jog). Progression by increasing duration of all sections.

The hilly section will make the legs strong, and the last tempo effort will teach the legs to run around race pace while tired. (similar to end of progressive long run above)

With your thursday session..If you were to increase the duration of the steady effort, before and after...(What pace is the steady 1.7 before and after your hill reps?) possibly bring it close to tempo and reduce the number of hill reps, you could replicate this.

The week should be sustainable, so judge sessions accordingly. This way you can slolwy increase mileage while slowly evolving sessions.

Thanks for reply T Runner. To answer your questions I would like to break 1hr 30mins anything after is a bonus.
Looking at paces that would leave me around 4-15 / k I think.
I mixed it up a bit with my lsr 2 weeks ago and started with 1k easy followed by 15k @ planned half pace with 6k easy after that. Managed 4-08/k average over the 15k (undulating course - not hilly). Funnily I had to talk myself into not continuing at that pace for more than 15k as I was in a groove. When I slowed back down to normal lsr pace (between 4-45 and 5/k ) I felt goosed! Maybe reaching too far too soon.
The steady mile before and after the hills is at approx 6-50 to 7/ mile.
Like doing the hills but have been having issues with my Achilles so trying to be sensible with my training and not overdo them.
My mile (1.7k with wee hill) intervals are at between 6-05 to 6-12. Possibly a bit fast!
My race times this year are a bit erratic to say the least.
1st race 5k 18.58 (pb 18.42 last year)
2nd race 10k 40.10 missed the start! (pb 39.48 last year)
3rd race 5k 18.49
4th Race 8k 30.49
5th Race 10k 41.51 (blew up at 6k and got sick!-very hot day)
6th Race 5k 17.52 (new pb)
I have been doing my lsr religiously but don't seem to have much depth at longer distances so hoping few longer tempos will help this.
The longest race I have done was in 2011 when I did a hilly kind of mountain race 15k in around 1-10 so bit worried that I have not tried anything beyond 10k in last two years.
Thanks for advice again.

T runner

If you can manage 4:08 for 15k then you can manage it and probably faster on race day.

That equates to 1:27

To get the depth you need specific endurance. Extend the long intervals till you are doing 6-7. Make sure the pace is slow enough to be relevent to your goal. i.e keep them controlled! Finish like you could do one more.

Overall high volume will give you some depth and generally increase your fitness (ave speed).

The extended tempo runs give you specific endurance. Cut down on the hills if you need to but keep them in there, as part of a tempo run if possible. Lack of leg strenght can cause a lack of depth in long races and can hinder you from being able to sustain a high volume of training. Best of luck with it!

conavitzky

T runner wrote: »

If you can manage 4:08 for 15k then you can manage it and probably faster on race day.

That equates to 1:27

To get the depth you need specific endurance. Extend the long intervals till you are doing 6-7. Make sure the pace is slow enough to be relevent to your goal. i.e keep them controlled! Finish like you could do one more.

Overall high volume will give you some depth and generally increase your fitness (ave speed).

The extended tempo runs give you specific endurance. Cut down on the hills if you need to but keep them in there, as part of a tempo run if possible. Lack of leg strenght can cause a lack of depth in long races and can hinder you from being able to sustain a high volume of training. Best of luck with it!

Thanks for all the advice T-runner. Will take your comments on board and let you know how I perform!!