How much experience to run a half? (Read 680 times)

How'd you feel after your 8 miler? If the answer's "pretty good", I'd say go for it. As you said, you're young & in good shape. There's probably a good argument somewhere about taking your time but, screw that. You've got over a month to get ready. Seek out a training schedule for a half marathon, Hal Higdon's website is good place to start & I think you'll see you're already on the right track.

If you can comfortably run a 10 miler in training, you should be able to pull off a half just fine. Just keep up your base mileage, get a few more long runs under your belt and you'll rock right through it. Good luck!

Like everyone else has said, go for it! k

Just curious how much experience/mileage is strongly recommended to run a half? I'm relatively new to running but also young/in good shape. There is the ING Half Marathon on January 29th that I am considering running.

Hi Chris, I'm in Miami and was planning to run that half as my first HM before I got a stress fracture in my foot. The training plan I was using had a 9 mile run last weeked, so you're pretty close. You should be fine. Enjoy the race! Even though I can't participate, I may come out and cheer anyways!

I recommend keeping your long-run the week before the race fairly short and definately not increasing. I have run two halfs, one where I did a 3-wk tapir (according to a plan), and the other I ran week 1: 10.5, week 2: 11.2, week 3: 11.2, week 3: 13.1. (And did I mention the 11.2 runs were ridiculously hilly?) While I had the same time for both runs on different courses and very different weather, my legs definately felt tired during the second one - I think I may have been able to run it faster and more relevantly had more fun if I hadnt run the second 11.2 run. I know thats not what a lot of the plans say, but thats my advice based on my plethora of experience. (I didnt expect to have the day off, so why not run what I want to. Then I ended getting the day off afterall, so I figured I should take advantage of that. Sometimes folks at work surprise me!) Oh, and dont forget to enjoy and have a good time!!!

HurricaneShaunna: Sorry to hear about your injury! Hopefully you'll enjoy a speedy recovery. Any other races planned in the next few months??

Thanks! Everything planned for next year so far revolves around my triathlon goals- I'm planning a Olympic Distance Duathlon in May on Key Biscayne, the Key Biscayne Triathlon Sprint trilogy (June, July and August), the Escape to Miami (Olympic distance) Tri in Sept and the Miami Man Half Ironman in November. No straight runs planned yet, though I'm thinking about doing the full Miami Marathon in 2008. How bout you? Oh, I forgot to add before that there is another half in the area- the A1A Marathon in Ft. Lauderdale in Feb. Just in case you're not feeling ready for Miami. OR you want to attack them both