Half Marathon Training Plan

tomred1N

Hi there,

Just looking for advice on a suitable half marathon training plan based on what I consider a fairly aggressive target for me sub 1:30

Been running nearly 2 years from a zero base. mainly all around 3 marathons Dublin 12, cork 13 and Dublin 13.

Now looking to try and break 1:30 for a half. current PB is 1:35:17 from last September. DCM 13 was 3:28:xx. Current YTD mileage is 272 mostly all easy running with some weekly LT/HMP runs around 6:50 pace.........finding them tough though. Only race since DCM was a 5 mile last Sunday 33:33. AVG pace 6:41. McMillam says 1:33 Half from this run. Has been very accurate so far for me in anything up to half distance. My marathon time could be better though so I feel I need to improve speed and therefore want to focus on half distance so as not to loose all endurance built up.

Is sub 90 realistic in 3 months and is the attached plan suitable. On looking at it the mileage seems quite low but paces all quite quick. 8:00 min miles easy runs for example ....this was my PMP last October.

Thanks in advance

mr.wiggle

Hi tomred, snap ! In exactly the same boat as you but a few months ahead. Your times match mine fairly close. Take a look at hal higdons plans here
http://www.halhigdon.com/training/51130/Half-Marathon-Training-Guide

Ive gone fairly agressive and am doing the advanced plan with a training pace of 6.30 min/mile using the mcmillan run calc. Am finding it very good as the daily mileage is small compared to previous marathon plans. Already have broke 1.30,just. .and taken 2 mins off my 10 mile time and im only 8 weeks into it.
Worth looking at it IMO.

Mr.W

Clearlier

The thing to remember is that you need to start from where you are not from where you want to be. The issue with that plan is that by the sounds of it, for you, the easy paces aren't easy and the tempo paces are a bit too quick. You also seem to suggest that the miles are a bit low. On the whole it doesn't sound like the optimal plan for you.

Remember that if you're targeting 1:30 you should aim to be able to run for 90 mins at as fast a pace as you're capable of. You should assess your strengths and weaknesses, take into account the amount of time that you have until your goal race and the build a plan with those factors in mind.

I'd be happy to help you construct a plan but I'd need to know a lot more about your strengths and weaknesses, what training (in as much detail as possible) you have completed over the past 2 years and what your sporting background was before that. You also need to decide what kind of a commitment you're willing to make to achieve this goal e.g., how many days to train, lose weight?, do core work etc.

statss

Hey there Tom,

I'm looking at breaking 1.30 too and I think the easy pace in that plan is far too fast (for me anyway). My easy pace as dictated by HR is 8.45-9.15. Tom Joad has been following this specific plan for a while so have a read of his log to see how he got on. The sessions look fairly decent so if it was me I'd perhaps do the sessions, but keep my easy runs a lot slower, and extend the long run to 2 hours at least most weeks.

Tom Joad

Hi Tom

As Statss says I'm on my second round of using this plan so have a look at my log around last September when I started following it.

Before I started my HM PB was 1:34:40 so not too dissimilar to your own PB. I have to say I really liked the plan and it left me agonisingly close to achieving the 1:30 - missed it by 14 seconds .

Re the paces of the easy runs - I took the approach that if I met them great but wasn't consciously aiming for them in every session and didn't sweat it if I didn't. Aiming to achieve the paces it sets is an injury waiting to happen IMO if you force them.

I always struggle with the tempo/ HMP runs and found them tough in this plan but if you are hitting these session you are well on the way to a sub 1:30 HM.

I would agree that the LSR's are a bit on the low side and I increased these by a few miles most weeks and would recommend doing this.

All in all I found the plan good with the tweaking of the LSR's and I liked its simplicity and didn't sweat not achieving the "easy" paces.

Am loosely following the plan for Bohermeen ( when not crocked ) and hopefully it will serve me well this time too.

Hope this helps.

overpronator

Seems to be a few of us from here going for 1.30 in Bohermeen, im probably going to give it a shot myself so it should be interesting! Are there pacers in Bohermeen and are they from here I wonder?

menoscemo

overpronator wrote: »

Seems to be a few of us from here going for 1.30 in Bohermeen, im probably going to give it a shot myself so it should be interesting! Are there pacers in Bohermeen and are they from here I wonder?

I'll be running it as a PMP run with a sub 90 target too. See you guys there...

overpronator

menoscemo wrote: »

I'll be running it as a PMP run with a sub 90 target too. See you guys there...

Nice one, will be good to put a face to the name.

menoscemo

overpronator wrote: »

Nice one, will be good to put a face to the name.

That's me in the tallaght vest in PaulieC's photos of Donadea 50k

blockic

overpronator wrote: »

Nice one, will be good to put a face to the name.

Bring ear plugs!

Tom Joad

overpronator wrote: »

Seems to be a few of us from here going for 1.30 in Bohermeen, im probably going to give it a shot myself so it should be interesting! Are there pacers in Bohermeen and are they from here I wonder?

AFAIK there will be 1:30 pacers - will be a nice bunch of us aiming for the sub 1:30 which should make it an even more enjoyable race. Just need to be back training before then

tomred1N

mr.wiggle wrote: »

Hi tomred, snap ! In exactly the same boat as you but a few months ahead. Your times match mine fairly close. Take a look at hal higdons plans here
http://www.halhigdon.com/training/51130/Half-Marathon-Training-Guide

Ive gone fairly agressive and am doing the advanced plan with a training pace of 6.30 min/mile using the mcmillan run calc. Am finding it very good as the daily mileage is small compared to previous marathon plans. Already have broke 1.30,just. .and taken 2 mins off my 10 mile time and im only 8 weeks into it.
Worth looking at it IMO.

Mr.W

Thanks Mr W That plan don't look too bad I think you have far faster marathon time than me though.

statss wrote: »

Hey there Tom,

I'm looking at breaking 1.30 too and I think the easy pace in that plan is far too fast (for me anyway). My easy pace as dictated by HR is 8.45-9.15. Tom Joad has been following this specific plan for a while so have a read of his log to see how he got on. The sessions look fairly decent so if it was me I'd perhaps do the sessions, but keep my easy runs a lot slower, and extend the long run to 2 hours at least most weeks.

Statss if you don't breeze 1:30 I have no hope. If I could read your log I'd follow it but you lost me since DCM ..........its like a periodic table now !!

tomred1N

Clearlier wrote: »

The thing to remember is that you need to start from where you are not from where you want to be. The issue with that plan is that by the sounds of it, for you, the easy paces aren't easy and the tempo paces are a bit too quick. You also seem to suggest that the miles are a bit low

Thank Clearlier,

You make a good point above about where I am and where I need to go. That's why I was looking for a plan to help me improve through it.

I'm not even sure of my strengths but weakness is probably lack of speedwork , rep's intervals etc. I find it hard to do them on the roads and don't really have access to a track. Could lose another half stone too and even though core is strong enough I don't work to make it better
I,m currently running 35-45 miles a week over 5/6 days so can continue that . Link to my log is here if you want to see what I have been at for past year. before that it was just starting from scratch after years of inactivity

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056879543

Tom Joad wrote: »

Hi Tom

As Statss says I'm on my second round of using this plan so have a look at my log around last September when I started following it.

Before I started my HM PB was 1:34:40 so not too dissimilar to your own PB. I have to say I really liked the plan and it left me agonisingly close to achieving the 1:30 - missed it by 14 seconds .

Re the paces of the easy runs - I took the approach that if I met them great but wasn't consciously aiming for them in every session and didn't sweat it if I didn't. Aiming to achieve the paces it sets is an injury waiting to happen IMO if you force them.

I always struggle with the tempo/ HMP runs and found them tough in this plan but if you are hitting these session you are well on the way to a sub 1:30 HM.

I would agree that the LSR's are a bit on the low side and I increased these by a few miles most weeks and would recommend doing this.

All in all I found the plan good with the tweaking of the LSR's and I liked its simplicity and didn't sweat not achieving the "easy" paces.

Am loosely following the plan for Bohermeen ( when not crocked ) and hopefully it will serve me well this time too.

Hope this helps.

Thanks Tom I'll take a look at your log. didn't realise you had a similar half time to me 6 months ago. That was a fair improvement over a short time. I would be in same mind as to easy pace...be around 8:30 for me. Good to know the tweaking works as I would be fairly rigid follower of plans an could as you say lead to injury /burnout. Hope you recover soon

viperlogic

Another free one I recommend would be http://smartcoach.runnersworld.com/smartcoach/new_plan.jsp . It's loosely based on Jack Daniels so you put in your current race result (not what you would like to run), race date, distance of race, and how hard you want to train, weekly mileage and a plan is created for you.