I have not been very active on any forum since the great Thanksiving Spam Storm of 2012, but I do lurk.

The Asbury Park Half Marathon was my first race in over a year and my fourth half-marathon . My three year running anniversary is rapidly approaching and my main goal has always been to finish sub two hours in the half. It’s actually something I have thought a lot about over the past few years.  In my last attempt I injured myself by pursuing training that was overly aggressive without a substantial base. There are several things that I was determined to do differently during the current training cycle:

1)        Build a solid base. From approximately December until February I worked on improving my miles per week. I went from a base of approximately to 30 to 42 miles per week. By the end of this cycle I was easily maintaining this workload. During this time I was also cognizant of keeping the vast majority of runs at an easy pace and added strides, pick-ups, and fast finishes intermittently on an informal basis. Towards the middle of base-building I also added several slightly slower tempo runs.

2)         For the actual HM training I went with the Ryan Hall Plan. It is a 10-week schedule with three quality workouts per week. As I increased speed work, I also decreased overall miles. I cut back one run per week in lieu of a light swim. I liked the variety of workouts that included 800s, 1000s, tempos, half-marathon paced tempo runs, and long runs. At peak of the plan I was back at about 40 miles per week with a very slow long run of 16 miles. Since there are no cut-backs built into this plan, which I consider a weakness, my body needed one about halfway through and I obeyed. I had no trouble meeting the time goals of each workout based on VDOT except for one workout that was just too aggressive: 1 mile warm-up; 2 miles at HM goal; 2X1  mile at 10k pace; and 1X800 at 5k pace. All-in-all, I saw improvement over the ten weeks and felt like I was training, not straining.  I was training to run between 8:50  to 9:00 per mile race.

3)      I got to the starting line with very fresh legs. I took what amounted to a week and a half taper. While doing so, I continued the intensity of training, but cut on the duration. Two days before the HM I ran 5X400m at 10k pace to keep the legs fresh. I liked that very much.

Raceday  

The running gods rewarded my training with weather that was absolutely perfect.  Cool, overcast, and a very light breeze by the ocean. My strategy was to be conservative.  The course was a mostly out and back format. I did a half mile warm-up and for my first race ever was devoid of any kind of anxiety whatsoever. I had a plan and was confident that I could stick to it.

The gun went off and I almost immediately settled into my pace.

Miles 1-4:            9:01; 9:01; 8:56; 8:57. As I ran my legs began to loosen a bit more and I focused on being efficient. All was going well.

Miles: 5-9            8:52; 8:56; 8:56; 8:57; 8:57.  As I expected things were getting more difficult. I reminded myself how badly I wanted to meet this goal and not to panic as I was expecting things to get more difficult. I also thought about how much time and effort I put into getting to where I was and that I was not going to let myself down.

Miles 10-13.1     8:53; 9:01; 9:00; 8:54; .52.   I knew that the last 3 miles were going to be a gut check and that was the truth. It was not an easy rode. At mile 11, I was accidently tripped by a runner, hit my shoulder pretty hard on ground, got back up, and kept running. I felt like I was running very slow, with increased effort. I wanted to be done badly. Of course when I saw the end I reached down for a bit more in the tank.

Chip Time: 1:57.15.

Overall, I am happy to finally break 2 hours. However, I find myself most happy about the actual training. I was finally able to listen to my body and follow a structured plan simultaneously. I also remembered that I don’t run a lot of races, because they hurt. I also took a quick trip to the ER for an x-ray that was negative.  Next month I have a 4 mile  race, with a new challenge. Thanks for reading.

Congratulations, you met your goal and you enjoyed the journey to get there.  Aside from the fall, it sounds like a really good race.

Great job, Larry!  Congratulations on the new PR.  Sorry about the lady tripping you.  Hope your arm is better.

Congrats on your great result.  You trained smartly and consistently and I think your big PR is definitely indicative of that.  If you continue that forward I think you're set up for some great results down the road too.  As for the race, awesome job with the consistent splits.  It's hard work not to let yourself slip off that pace, but you really held it - especially for having been tripped!

Larry, congratulations on blowing your previous PR to smithereens!

Excellent!  Congrats on the PR, Larry!

Great job, you really rocked it.

Larry, I just wanted to say congratulations on a great training cycle and the huge PR. I used the same RH plan as you, and I too had great success with it. The one ladder work out you mentioned kicked my butt as well. I was feeling so good that I added 3 x 400's at like 3k or better pace. I shouldn't have acted so foolishly, because I hurt like hell for the next 5-6 days. Next time I will not push for the 400's. The way you described the last 3 miles was the exact way I felt too. I think this is the importance of his "Race Sim" runs.