Forums >Racing>Sub-90 Minutes for the Half Marathon (2011)
My Half Marathon is Saturday. Any advice going forward? This will be my first one and also will be the longest I have ever ran. Here is my race plan. It's a pretty flat course, so I don't have to plan for any strategy due to changes in elevation. I want to start out the first mile at about seven minute pace. After the first mile, I want to lock onto 6:50 pace. At mile 7, I want to try and pick it up a bit for miles 7, 8, and 9. The last three, I hope I am under my goal pace, and I will try to stay relaxed and fast and hang in there. Sound good?
My Half Marathon is Saturday. Any advice going forward? This will be my first one and also will be the longest I have ever ran.
Here is my race plan. It's a pretty flat course, so I don't have to plan for any strategy due to changes in elevation. I want to start out the first mile at about seven minute pace. After the first mile, I want to lock onto 6:50 pace. At mile 7, I want to try and pick it up a bit for miles 7, 8, and 9. The last three, I hope I am under my goal pace, and I will try to stay relaxed and fast and hang in there. Sound good?
Hey Tief,
Good luck. I hope you have a great run and reach your goals. I would suggest even pacing or even slightly negative splits is always the best strategy to run your best time if you are racing the clock (I guess if you are racing racing surges and changes of pace may be advantageous to break up the other runners pacing and rhythm - but I take you are not doing this).
I am sure you will get some tips from people you have run many more half marathons than me but I reckon, aim for something like the first mile in 7 (you are always going to run it too fast on the day) and then try to hit 6:50 all the way to mile 9 or 10 and then either tough it out if you are struggling or pick up the pace to finish strong. Although you might run sub 90, I strongly suspect that surging for 5km just over half way through a half marathon is asking for trouble, especially given you haven't ever run the distance before. Feeling good and running fast at mile 12 will be far more satisfying than feeling good and running fast at mile 7 and then hurting all the way home.
Dwane
P.S. Good luck NaderAlfie, there is always a chance. Training has been going well with 8 weeks of reasonable mileage. Feel good over 10km but am still struggling for the consistent pace for the longer distances. Haven't found a half on a weekend when I am not working over the upcoming spring/summer so far so my attempt might have to wait till next year as well, although if I find a race will at least give it a shot. I have a 10 miler this weekend which I am planning to run untapered, which should give a good indication of where I'm at.
SMART Approach
Tief,
Based on your training and 5K time, you should easily hit your goal. I am a bit perplexed that you do all your runs fairly fast - 11 miles at 7:15 pace and labeling it "EASY". Wow, I run a 1:31-1:32 half or so and my easy pace is 8:30 pace and 5K pace is 6:30. Hmmnn! Either you are training too fast too often or you are in better shape than you think. Training too fast conditions your body to burn a higher percentage of carbs. You might be able to get away with this for a half but it would hurt you for a full marathon.
For your first half, I would suggest a conservative 1st mile. 7 min is fine but this will feel slow and that is ok. Once adrenaline burns off you will end up being around 7 min pace but I will warn you, that first half mile will feel too slow so avoid cranking up the pace. You almost have to hold back. That is ok also but you will not be going as slow as you think. I would recommend settling in at 6:45-6:50 for next 9 miles and then view last 3.1 miles as a 5K and push it a bit. On last mile, it is all guts and bring it home. I would not rev it up yet at mile 7. Run a smart race and you should hit your goal. Good luck!
Run Coach. Recovery Coach. Founder of SMART Approach Training, Coaching & Recovery
Structured Marathon Adaptive Recovery Training
Safe Muscle Activation Recovery Technique
www.smartapproachtraining.com
I have two halfs coming up:
Emerald City Sept 4th and State to State Sept 25th.
2014 Goals: (Yeah I suck)
Thank-you sir you are very prompt in your service.
I'm on temporary shut down until I figure this out, but Wed after run felt some pain on top of foot (all the way across behind toes) when putting pressure on (walking). Thurs ran on it anyway, and was a bit painful. Then after run very painful. Hoping it's tendonitis and not stress fracture, though either way stinks. No redness or swelling, doesn't hurt when doing nothing, or even when i press foot with fingers, squeeze etc. Pretty much only when putting weight on it (walking). Will rest, ice, advil, and if no improvement by Monday will see ortho. A bit gutted, as clearly in best shape I've ever been in, and race only 5 weeks away, but hopefull....
Come all you no-hopers, you jokers and roguesWe're on the road to nowhere, let's find out where it goes
Why not see the orthopedist sooner, man? I am not generally a run-to-the-doctor type. But with 5 weeks to go, it might be better to address this thing early.
"If you have the fire, run..." -John Climacus
Yeah, just got back from biz trip late last night, and no chance today. Really Monday would be earliest chance to get something set up if I can get away from office (budget time, so it's tough). But I hear you.
Tiefsa
First of all thanks to everyone for their advice and support on this thread. There was no way I would have tried to run a sub 1:30 if it wasn't for the people here. My race was today.
1:35:17
I was on pace at six miles and wasn't feeling very comfortable. Mile 7 was in 7:02, and I progressively got slower from there.
Looking back at my training, I can see where my knee problems started up and that really held back my training. I tried to work through it, but one week I went over 30 miles and it gave me a lot of grief. Then I ran a 5k race and it made it worse. I had to take 3-4 days off, and I never felt the same since then.
When I ran my 11 mile run, everything went really well, but at mile nine, my legs felt like dead weight. I thought maybe the stars would align and I would feel great today, but there are no flukes in running. I didn't do enough training. Maybe next time my legs will cooperate better and I can slowly ramp up my fitness instead of trying to do all the training in three months.
Either way, I went from 204lbs to 193lbs. I ran 13.1 miles, which is the farthest run I have ever done, got 10th place overall along with a shiny medal, and I did it at 7:17 pace. I can't complain about that.
Distinctively Juvenile
That sounds like a good day to me, Tief.
I think you know what you need to do for sub-90. Thirty miles per week may work for some people, just not you or me.
Great run. For a first half marathon that is a very impressive time. Sorry to hear that training didn't go to plan with some injury issues but still I reckon that is a pretty good day out and certainly a solid starting base of training to push on towards a 90 minute half if that is still your focus. 10th place isn't too shabby either. Good run and hope you recover well.
I just need to find a half to run because I think that I am almost there - ran an essentially untapered (although I did have yesterday off) 10 mile race this morning and was very happy with a PB of 1:07:33. Haven't worked out the exact numbers yet but I think that I should be able to run another 5km in 22:30 with a bit of a rest. Although it has taken a bit more time, nothing has helped like running more easy miles/week. I don't know what others have found but adding some longer intervals like 5 x 1.6km with 400m jog recovery seems to have been really useful.
That sounds like a good day to me, Tief. I think you know what you need to do for sub-90. Thirty miles per week may work for some people, just not you or me.
Or me. Fortunately there's 40, 50, etc... and the best part is that you don't need to run them hard. Tief, I bet you'll see a quick response with a couple months of higher/easy milage. Still, that's not a shabby first half.
Well done on your half Tief - a sub 90 will not be far away for you.
Tief, Good job. You got your first half under your belt and did well. Now you have a time to beat. Hopefully, you have learned a few things in doing so. Just a few suggestions. You have what it takes to get sub 90. Based on your 5K time you have the capability of doing this very soon. As I have mentioned before, you are training too hard. The goal of training is to work hard, but allow yourself to recover and get stronger. You had some long runs at a pace faster than your half time. Again, just a comparison to myself being a 25 mile a week runner with a slower 5K time than you. I did a 11 miler yesterday at 8:25 pace. Plenty fast for me. It worked me pretty darn good. Monday will be a 9 min pace 6 miler to allow me to continue to absorb the 11 mile trainining effect. With a low mileage runner like me (and you), 11 miles is a "work out".
You are doing your long runs in the 7:15 pace range which in a sense you are doing a race everytime you do a long run. You have done a lot of races and probably have not recovered from it. This is not training, it is "straining". You are not allowing your body to absorb the work outs and get stronger from them. Which is also why some injuries have creeped up. As mentioned above, you need to get in slower miles to build up your aerobic fitness and ability to hold a faster pace. The base is 95% of your race time. Quality work, race specific work, peaking etc. gives your that extra 5% or so. You have conditioned yourself to run fast but it only holds up for shorter race distances as you are digging into carbs stroes at a high percentage at all your training runs. You need some base building with pacing more at that 8 min pace.
Recover from the Half race, regroup and find a goal race down the road or just do a few 5Ks and 10Ks in Fall as your speed work while getting in slow miles around them. You have a lot of potential but you need to stay healthy. Good luck!
I'm probably not going to make another attempt any time soon. The school year starts up again now, and running takes a back seat. If anyone is from the Wisconsin area, here is a detailed review of The Eisenbahn Marathon and Half Marathon. It's not about my race, just the course and how the organizers ran it.
If you are looking to run a fast half, this course is awesome. It's flat and the packed down gravel path feels excellent to run on. The marathon course has some big hills early in the race though. The negatives were lack of bathrooms before the race, and the awards ceremony wasn't well organized.
Medical update.
Saw DPM today. X-ray doesn't show stress fracture, but...probably too early for one to show up on x-ray. Given the presentation and all the things leading up to it, his best guess is morton's neuroma (nerve impingement). But, advice is 1 week no running, come back, re-x-ray to rule out fracture, see where pain is, maybe a cortisone shot, and we'll work on addressing root cause (biomechanics, etc.). Based on shoe wear pattern, I excessively under pronate, and some recent PF/arch pain may have exaggerated that more, which may have tipped the neuroma.
I liked the doc, he's a runner, so was easy to relate to and he fully (I think) understood the situation.
Anyway, bottom line is, this sucks. I'll do elliptical/bike if there's no pain in the meantime. But frustrated because feel like I was well on the way to crushing this 90 min thing.
We'll see what happens on the other side of a week.