I would appreciate feedback on the training plan that I am putting together for my first HM at the end of April.  It is loosely based on the Ryan Hall 10-week beginner’s plan, but I added a couple of weeks and replaced interval work with easy runs.

I’m almost 48 yrs old and have been running for one year.  You can see my log – I’ve been slowly but steadily building up miles with occasional low-mileage weeks due to either needing rest or life circumstances.  For the past couple of months I’ve just been running easy miles to build my base.  I should be at ~30 miles/week with LRs in the 8-10 mile range for January.

My goal for the HM is to be able to run the distance at my “easy” pace.  That puts my finish time around 2:30.  Anything under 2:30 would be gravy.  I’m not treating this race as a one-shot “bucket list” deal, but as “dipping my toe into the HM water”.  If I enjoy the training and the race, I’ll probably run another HM in the Fall.

My main focus for the training cycle is to build endurance and give me confidence for the distance.  (Hence the focus on the long run.)  I’m not worried about speed training, but I did designate one day per week for a Tempo run.   In the past, speed work has worn me down (I was probably trying to do TMTS) so I want to be careful.  Depending how I feel that particular day, it might end up a Fartlek run.  If I’m having a rough week it will end up as another easy-pace run.  You will also notice that I repeat a couple of weeks in the plan.  This is to give me wiggle room if I need a cut-back week at some point.

I’m a little worried that weeks 5-8 might be a little aggressive, but I guess I can make adjustments at the time if needed.

Comments?

My RP wants to do that half, but it's the day before my anniversary and I don't think that would go over too well with the husband.  Sorry I'm going to miss you.

If your goal is to just run it at your easy pace, you will have already done that in training a few times. But you mentioned you may do a fartlek or run it faster if you're feeling good on that day. I like that your mileage increases are conservative and that you have a medium-ish length run during the week. I agree that some of those longer runs could be scaled back just a tad though. I'm not saying you should go this low, but even if you capped off your LR at 10 miles, I think that would be adequate for your goals, while working on increasing overall mileage and throw in some faster running every now and then. Maybe strides once a week and a tempo or fartlek every week or every other week.

Good luck

I think that:

1) your mileage increases are actually on the conservative side - you can certainly add more, if you like.  In fact, I'd feel better about increasing slightly faster, and taking cutback weeks (or holding steady), rather than slow weekly increases.

2) you should aim to have your longest long run no more than 2 weeks (+1 day) before the race - where it is now is awfully early, as meaghansketch points out.  I'd make week 10 also have a 14m LR.

3) Why bother running a half at your LR pace?  As pointed out by B-plus, you're already (planning on) doing that.  Do you have any 5K or 10K times that you can use to project a half goal?  Alternatively, depending on how you run your tempos, you can aim for the same pace, or slightly slower; I find that if I can run a 6-mile tempo at pace X I can race a half pretty close to that pace.

4) I agree you don't need intervals.  I like to do a few strides as a warm-up before tempo runs, but that's it for speedwork for me.

Good luck, have fun!

Some alternatives to consider:

1) have progression runs as an option/alternative to tempo and fartlek

2) use the last part of your Tuesday run for the tempo/progression run and have Wednesday be easy that week

3) vary your normal/easy paces some; don't always run the same steady pace

Contrary to what many beginner programs do, I think you're wise to schedule your longest run a month before the race rather than a week or two before. I also don't think it's necessary to push the LR beyond 12 miles since you have the 8 mile runs on Tuesday and are including some quality runs as well. If you can handle the 13 and 14 mile LRs without running to exhaustion, fine, but if 12 is still hard for you at that point, it won't hurt to keep the LRs in weeks 7 and 8 to 10-12 miles. (Note I included the possibility of cutting back there if 12 still feels hard.)  Your schedule is more likely to bring you to race day better rested than someone who keeps increasing the LR up to the last week. Those last 2-4 weeks should be focused on determining race pace and getting in some training at that pace so you know what it feels like. Then the last week to 10 days should be taper to recover from the hard training with just enough faster work to keep you race ready.

Thank you all, you've given me good suggestions to ponder.

Lilac Jive and AprilRunner-- I'll see you at the race!  Kay, I guess we will have to wait until your DH is a little more "on board" with your running, maybe in 2014?  April, thanks for the tip regarding the hilly second half. I will check the elevation profile and try to incorporate some similar hills in my training runs.  And I won't start too fast.

George, when you suggest varying my normal/easy pace, do you mean to let it happen naturally or to purposely vary my pace?  I run "easy" by effort; resulting in paces that range from 11:00 - 11:30 from day to day (sometimes from mile to mile in the same run).

I ran a 10K on 12/23; I will plug my time into MacMillan to see what my predicted HM time would be. When it comes down to it, I will not run the entire race at my easy pace.   I'm just trying to express my mindset as somewhere between "I just want to finish,even if I have to walk intervals" and "I'm going to push myself to the max and beat my MacMillan predicted time".

Based on your comments I'm going make these changes:

1). "Speed" work may be Fartleks, tempo runs, or progression runs

2).  add some strides, either on my speed day or at the end of an easy day

3) speed day can  be any of the mid-week days.  Move it around for variety, but aim for one speed day per week

4)  put at least one cut-back week in the plan

5). Re-think the LR build.

I will post my revised plan later this weekend when I'm not on the iPad. I don't know how to make even columns with an iPad.

When I was preparing for my first half, I was making a lot of fitness gains.  I had no idea what pace to run at my HM.  About a month out, I skipped a long run and ran a race.  For me, it was a 5K.  I then used that to calculate my pace for the race, and recalibrate my training paces.  I would listen to people like SRL, and wcrunner, but it might be a good idea to schedule a race in there to find your paces.  Guys?  What do you think?

Other than that, it looks pretty good to me.  I like some of the suggestions, but don't see anything that I think would make or break it.

It looks pretty good to me and I agree with George's suggestions.  Good luck!