Sub-90 Minutes for the Half Marathon (2011) (Read 6744 times)

I'm planning on my first ever half marathon in late August.  I just started training, and really am not sure what my goals will be.  1:30 is pretty darn fast though right?  I'll have to see where I'm at in June and re-assess.  Sub 90 would be great though... I need to follow this thread.

Tief,

Just to bring this forum back from the world of hamsters and innuendo, if you've never run a half before I'd suggest you do some slow runs of say 15 miles just so when you are on the start line you are confident you can run the distance.

To do a sub 1:30:00 in your first half depends on a lot of things but I managed 1:29:25 in the second ever half I ran yet at the time I was over 50 years old  and I have never beaten it since.

If you want help you need to make your log public.

I think I made my log public now.  You can see my training now.  I just started in mid April.

I haven’t run a half in over 10 years. That, and I don’t know much about running, except for my own experiences and what I read on RA. But, you made your log public, and are looking for feedback, and it's Friday and I'm about to go on vacation, and the internets are a free-for-all, so I’ll provide some…(and maybe if I do someone who knows something will correct it and actually tell you something useful).

You don’t have to run a lot to complete a half marathon. But, if you’re going to race a half marathon, or run it without hurting yourself, it sure would help to build some miles.  It’s sort of hard to tell from your log what the difference is for you between “hard” “easy” and “medium”, but just starting out, most of your miles should be easy. And easy should be easy, like not the same pace as hard or medium.  Easy enough that you can actually do medium and hard and there should be a real difference. And you’re eventually going to need to get some “long” runs in – longer than the 7 or so miles you’ve done in the past.

It reads like 90 mins is “sort of” a goal for you – but you are wise not to know for sure – how could you have a hard goal at this point in your training?

Anyway, build some easy miles, run some shorter races to get a sense of where you are, and yes, reassess (or really, assess) your half marathon goal in a few months.

I have a goal of sub 90 for Oct. 2…I know I need to build on my “long” run, and add regular tempo runs. Should be fun.

Now a real runner should chime in and help you…

Mr Howe don't try and play the age card as we are both babes in arms compared to Ed,

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ed_Whitlock

I don't think I'll go sub 1:30:00 tomorrow as I've been stressed out this week with my election campaign for the local council, I got a seat but maybe celebrated a bit too much.

I've still got my doubt's about Ilene as she seems too good to be true

I'll be running the Pittsburgh 1/2 next Sunday 5/15. I'm not ready to break 90 but I hope to flirt with a PR.

I hope to break 90 this fall. Either leading into or shortly after a Sept 11th marathon.

Failed today finished in 1:32:30 but was well up the field..

The weather was odd as it was warm humid with a strong wind, better luck next time which won't be for a while as I have 2 10k's and a hilly 100 mile sportif in successive weekends now.

I spent several half marathons inching my times down from the high 1:30s to eventually break 1:30 this past fall (1:28:56 to be precise).  I've found that the key ingredient for faster times in a half are (1) consistent running (at least 3-4 times a week), (2) building mileage up to at least 30 miles per week for several consecutive weeks, (3) long tempo runs (about 1 a week starting at 3-4 miles at or slightly below HMP and eventually building to 6-7 miles at or slightly below HMP), and (4) at least 2-3 long training runs over the half distances.

Sub-90 was my principal running goal from 2007 until this past fall.  It's rewarding to meet a goal that you work for three years to achieve.

No problem.  One additional piece of advice, I try to do most of my runs at either a fast pace (Tempo/Interval) or a slow pace (Easy/Recovery).  From what I've read and learned, paces in between fast and slow are not really helpful for learning to run at race pace or from recovering from hard workouts at or faster than race pace.

For example, if you're training for a sub-90 half, you should put in miles at HMP (around 6:50 per mile) and run some intervals/short tempos at a pace that is faster than HMP (say 6:10-6:20 for longer intervals and sub-6 for shorter intervals).  On days when you're taking it easy or running recovery runs, your pace should be at least a minute slower than HMP. 

No problem.  One additional piece of advice, I try to do most of my runs at either a fast pace (Tempo/Interval) or a slow pace (Easy/Recovery).  From what I've read and learned, paces in between fast and slow are not really helpful for learning to run at race pace or from recovering from hard workouts at or faster than race pace.

 

For example, if you're training for a sub-90 half, you should put in miles at HMP (around 6:50 per mile) and run some intervals/short tempos at a pace that is faster than HMP (say 6:10-6:20 for longer intervals and sub-6 for shorter intervals).  On days when you're taking it easy or running recovery runs, your pace should be at least a minute slower than HMP. 

If you are only running 30 miles per week and running a 7 min pace or slightly faster, I would not be doing long intervals at 6:10-6:20 pace in any amount of high volume on a weekly basis. This would be max Vo2 pace. I think a work out every third or 4th week like 5 X 800m would be ok. I also don't think you should do an abundance of sub 6 min intervals on only 30 miles per week either. This is more 3-5K race training.

A half marathon is an aerobic event. This is too much anaerobic work. Again, on occasion it would be ok to do some faster reps as part of a multipace approach, but 30 miles is not enough to support all this true speed work and stay healthy long term. I am not saying this won't work for you, but this would not part of a weekly schedule I would create on someone running 30 miles per week.