Margo, I wanted to say good luck to you! For what it's worth the plan I'm following has the longest run 6 weeks before the HM, and starts the taper with 4 weeks to go. Or at least, it stops focusing on endurance with 4 weeks to go. But if you wanted to keep a longer run through later in your plan, it would allow you a couple more weeks to do the build from 11-14, which might be nice.
My two cents are that you could think about building in more miles. Right now you are being pretty conservative (as was previously mentioned). That is perfectly OK. However, you could increase slightly more and extend to 43- 45 per week at your peak. That with the additional speed work you've mentioned would help with the ease of running a half.
Smaller By The Day
Awood- I'm not SRL or wcrunner, but IMO tune-up races become more valuable as your goals become more ambitious. It sounds like the OP's goal is mainly to finish the race. If I were trying to race an HM as a goal race, with a specific, ambitious (for my fitness level) time goal, I would certainly schedule a tune-up race a few weeks out to better set a goal. In this case I don't think it's necessary, though I wouldn't argue against the inclusion of one if the OP wanted to run one.
After rereading my post, I realize that it didn't come across the way I intended. I value everyone's opinion. My point was that I don't have as much experience as other people in the forums. My apologies.
Improvements
Weight 100 pounds lost
5K 31:02 Sept. 2012 / 23:36 Sept. 2013 (Same Course)
10K 48:59 April 2013
HM 2:03:56 Nov. 2012 / 1:46:50 March 2013
MARATHON 3:57:33 Nov. 2013
I have no advice but I know from our thread you have been so consistent and I think youre gonna have a great race and finish with a smile. I cant wait to see how the training goes and how the race goes
~~~~~~~
Traci
Thank you everyone for your help. Here's what I've come up with, taking into consideration the suggestions offered.
For simplicity, my planned running days stay the same every week and the speed day is always Wednesday. In reality, my running days may change due to weather / scheduling conflicts, and my speed workout might be any of the weekday runs. I will always aim for 5 days per week and no more than three consecutive days of running.
"Pace" workouts will be fartlek runs, tempo runs, or progression runs. Hill work comes as part of my everyday runs -- I can't go more than a couple of miles without running at least a medium hill and there are some big hills on a couple of my usual medium / long routes.
I added a 5K in week 7. It's a local race I want to run and will give a little variety to my training.
The big disclaimer: This is my plan, but of course I will modify it if needed.
Week
Sun
Tue
Wed (Pace)
Thur
Sat (LR)
Total
1
5
7
10 - 11
32 - 33
2
3
6
33 - 34
4
8
23
11 - 12
35 - 36
5K race
27
12 - 13
36 - 37
9
10
12
36
11
32
22
13
RACE
Are we there, yet?
Looks good. Any particular reason for the low mileage and skipping the Wed run in week 4? Something you may want to consider that has helped me is to set minimum and maximum distances for the run. This ensures I get in a minimum workout for the reason I'm running it and prevents me from overdoing it if I feel good and am tempted to do more. I usually schedule my LRs that way which is also why I make my recommendations as ranges, e.g. 10-12 miles instead of a set distance. It's also useful for my recovery runs where it's very easy to do more than I should.
2024 Races:
03/09 - Livingston Oval Ultra 6-Hour, 22.88 miles
05/11 - D3 50K 05/25 - What the Duck 12-Hour
06/17 - 6 Days in the Dome 12-Hour.
Mostly harmless
I'm much less experienced than a lot of the runners here but I'll throw in my 2 cents.
1. You are completing or nearly completing the HM distance twice in training so setting a slightly more ambitious goal than finishing at your easy pace seems appropriate.
2. You might consider either moving some of your Thursday runs to Friday or adding a few short runs to Friday so that you do at least some of your Saturday long runs without the benefit of a rest day the day before. Running long on slightly tired legs is good practice.
Either way, it looks like you'll be well prepared for your race and I wish you the best of luck. Don't forget to have fun.
"It doesn’t matter how often you do it or how much you accomplish, in general, not running is a lot easier than running." - Meb Keflezighi
George, I arbitrarliy set Week 4 as a cut-back week. I never know ahead of time when I will need a cut-back week, but if I look back over my log it seems that every 3-4 weeks I've had a lower mileage week. Sometimes because I needed it, sometimes it just happened. So I threw an easy week in the plan...if I'm still feeling good I'll carry on with something similar to Week 3 or 5. But I am pretty sure I'll need a bit of a break somewhere in weeks 4-5.
When I take a cut-back week because I'm tired, I have found that taking an extra rest day and eliminating the LR works well for me. It might be a mental thing, but perception is reality, right?
Lately I've been doing something along the lines of your min/max distances for runs, and I like it. For example, this week I have a target of 30 miles with a LR of 9-10 miles. That means I need to get 20-21 miles in my four runs leading up to Saturday's LR. In my head I partitioned it as 5 / 6 / 5 / 5. Yesterday when I went out the goal was "active recovery" after my 9-miler the previous day. I set of range of at least 4 miles, but not more than 5 (I went 4.9 miles).
Phillie, you have already got some great opinions so I can't really add too much. I believe you mentioned the Hall plan in the OP, so I just wanted to put this out there as my experience. 3 days of speed work in his plan really taxed my body the first cycle, So i just tried to get in the miles, even if at an easier pace. I'm currently starting week 5, and I've kinda dropped one of the speed work days for more of a MLR, for me, that's 7-9 miles and I try to put a little faster paces in there, just not exactly like the plan. I also have hills on my normal routes so I don't do specific hill workouts. Your plan looks good, and it sounds like you have "planned" for some flexibility, and that always helps.