I'm planning on doing my first half marathon the end of March. I am new to Low HR training and was hoping someone could share a good training program. I've been training at my MAF for about 3 months now but have really not seen any results yet as far as faster MAF times. Hopefully faster MAF times will come. I HAVE lost 15 pounds, which I've tried to do for years exersising at high heart rates, so I'm very happy with this part of it.
I was thinking of using the Hal Higdon novice program all at MAF...no strength or races.
Any other suggestions would be appreciated!
thanks,
John
Aaack!
John - welcome. If you keep your log on RA, open it up so we can be more specific in our help.
More questions at this time. When you say train at MAF, do you mean you run at you MAF for all runs? How many runs per week? How many miles per week? Longest run to date? 3 months of running only base? MAF for you = what number? Goal for the HM? Early or late March? Previous races + details? Previous exercise prior to LHR? Any additional exercises done during this past 3 month cycle?
That will help the rest of the group chime in more effectively.
Dr. MLK,Jr brithplace
Do you stay at Maff for all your activities? Are you doing a WU before Maff test? Log on to team Oregon pace wizard to get a good idea of a pace for the HM. I used it for my HM and beat the predicted time. I did adjust the T/O pace time to match the Maff pace time.
jimmyb
Before I found Running
Can you provide a link? I'm going to try my first HM in April (Earth Day HM) and would like to see what king of a time I can expect.
I also saw the chart you added from JimmyB, but I'm assuming a HM pace would be a little quicker.
JV - ok. If you just want to finish and have no time expectation, then its building a base and getting in the miles. You don't really need a "canned" training plan to get to the finish line. You just need miles. I would suggest building you weekly miles to a peak of 35-40 with a good long run on weekends and nice distance run in the middle of the week. If you are currently at 6.5 for your long run add a mile per week. You will get to the magic 13 prior to the race to build some confidence. Run these below MAF and you should be just fine. Do some MAF tests every 3 or 4 weeks to gauge your progress. Add a two week taper if you like but if you are truely staying at or below MAF, I would only take a couple of days rest prior to the race.
Try not to get hung up on the training plans. Running below MAF is designed to minimize stress on the body and you will be very pleased about how well you can build time on your feet without stressing yourself too much. The training plans like Higdn, Pfitz, Daniels, etc. are designed with other thoughts in mind.
Hope that helps and good luck. Keep posting in the daily threads and we can help along the way.
FW Half 11/8/09
John, You might try walk/run Gallowalking as well to let IT band issue clear up while still building miles. I used it since last spring until a short time ago as I phase into continuous lhr approach.
Bob is correct. Galoway run-walk is a good idea. Walking also enhance aerobic fitness.
For ITBS, try the old cross over stretch. While standing - cross one leg in front of the other and try to touch your toes. You can also cross over and instead of touching your toes, lean upright into a wall. Both of these are staples for me and helped the time I had ITBS.
jv - I used Gallowalking before finding this forum and realizing, at least for me, it was a form of aerobic interval training. I finally used Galloway's table after starting with run 10, walk 1, then run 5, walk 1, finally for a 13 pace run/walk of 1 min each and that worked to ease the ITBS (I also used the cross over stretch - a lot, all day in fact until it eased up), and calf stretches of various kinds. I used the 1/1 ratio from about mid May thru to October when I started reading about lnr.
I think that has allowed me to build a sold aerobic base with which to play with. I've run two halves using 1/1 at the start and extending running after mi 7 (although knowing about Atlanta's hills I extended more on the downhills, and reduced running on the up on the backend).
I surprised myself yesterday by having longest continuous run yet. After warming up I ran at maf-10 (97 for me) for 5mi and almost 70 minutes, for an avg pace of 13:53 - only 7 seconds slower than my half pb!!! AND - I had zero recovery time - no lactic acid build up. After the halves my quads hurt for days. Wow! Blows me away. I took a look at my log and its also about 30 sec faster than hr=97 pace from a month ago. Intriguing!
I am sold on this method!!!
A couple of things. I am on beta blockers so that may help me manage changes in HR, not being a medical dr I can't be sure. I do know my hr can do strange things. Like the other morning I was trying very lhr with hr=87 and was walking briskly hr hit 77 then suddenly dropped to 73 and stayed there... I hadn't change pace and was on level ground at the time. Go figure.
Second thing, I think I am benefiting from the six months of run 1/walk 1 in which didn't have me running long enough for hr to get very high and exceed maf by much, if ever. it was more like continual aerobic intervals. I did the 1:1 in order to heal and also to get through the north TX summer when it can be in the upper 70's, low 80's at 5 am in the morning! It was warmer and more humid this year than when I started running in July 08. I extended my long run time to over 3hrs in order to convince my self I could finish a half.
