Forums >Racing>Distance series to prep for HM, go short or long?
Mmmmm...beer
My local running club has a distance series in Jan/Feb to prep for the Shamrock half/full in March. I can do either the 10/15/20k or the 20/25/30k series. Obviously the shorter series is meant to prep for the half and the longer for the full.
I'll be running the half and was wondering if anyone sees a problem with me doing the longer series? I only ask because the longer series counts towards the club's Grand Prix points standings, while the shorter series doesn't. I'm not hugely hung up on the points series, but it's a fun competition.
If I'll be better served by racing the shorter series to get a better feel for my half, I'll do that, which I'm guessing is going to be the concensus. But if I could still benefit from the longer series, it would be nice to get the points.
FWIW, I'm not on a specific training plan, guess you could call it base building, just running, all easy, except for a couple of 5ks recently. I plan to start rolling in some tempos and intervals.
-Dave
My running blog
Goals | sub-18 5k | sub-3 marathon 2:56:46!!
an amazing likeness
To my opinion, you'll be better served by the shorter series as it will support more HM effort pace work than the longer.
Acceptable at a dance, invaluable in a shipwreck.
That's what I was thinking, and I really want to put my best effort into the half, to see how much I've improved from my first one in Sept. I've already improved considerably in the last two months, my easy pace now is faster than I ran my half.
Speaking of pace, what would be the best way to approach the 10/15/20k series pace wise? I'll be racing a 5k on the 1st, and the 10k is on the 5th, should I use my pace from the 5k to estimate a pace for the 10k and go from there? The 15k and 20k are then three weeks apart from the 10k and each other. Just use the pace from the 10k to estimate the 15k, and then the 15k for the 20k? Or should I be trying push the pace a little more in each one to see what I can handle for the half?
I'm an middle-aged seasoned runner, so this may not apply to you...however I have had a bit of focus on the half marathon recently, and what I've found is that the 10K pace/effort is good for HM training, and the 5K doesn't tell me anything other than I don't have enough raw leg speed.
I use whatever I run in the most recent 10K to help me set HM tempo effort/pace for the 7 - 9 mile mid-distance run that is the meat of half training. (for me) I look to be somewhere in the middle of 10K effort and half marathon effort for these.
Were it me, I'd run each of the events 'all out' -- as each will force a different pace in order to complete the distance, to see where my fitness is that day, at that effort. And from the 15K + 20K, I'd have some data about where I'd be in a half and what training to work on more (endurance or tempo).
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I also say go for the short series. It seems like a great, easy way to get in some really great and beneficial "speedwork in disguise" for your HM training. The longer races...granted I'm really not up on much of the science of things and I go by what works for me, but just doing loads of miles has never worked for me. As an example, my best half marathon running just long miles with little to no specific speedwork was a 1:55. My best HM with long runs of only 12 miles, but a great deal more tempo and speedwork is a 1:36.
Mile 5:49 - 5K 19:58 - 10K 43:06 - HM 1:36:54
Thanks Milk & MJ, I'm gonna do the short series. I'll run the 10k hard and see where my pace falls and then base my 15k and 20k off of that.
That's interesting MJ. I've just been focused on upping the mileage, need to balance it with some speed work. Altho, I do have to admit that I like zoning out for 2+ hours.