First Half (first race) (Read 491 times)

Great job! You did well and hit your goal which is awesome! The strategy of racing is important. You had some aggressive miles early on but the first mile was slower which probably helped you in the long run. If those first 3 miles were 7:47 or so if would have been tougher for you. Generally, the last 10K your pacing was somewhat even compared to earlier in race. You have to remember, if you are in a race and giving it your all, the last 5k will be and should be very hard. It is a race! You  should be hurting if going all out! If you finish a longer race (like a half) feeling great, you left something on the course!!!

You will only get better with more experience racing. A 5K race would be valuable to help determine what your half marathon race should be or what it correlates to. Shoot for one in next 2-4 weeks while trained.  The 5K race also helps with training paces. Your normal pace of 8:30-9:00 pace is not that far off from your half marathon pace. Just to give you an example of myself. I run a half at 7 min pace and a 5K at 6:30 pace and my long runs are at 8:30 pace, tempos at 7:00-7:15 pace. 10K or critical velocity reps at 6:45-6:50 pace.  This can help you develop a schedule in future where you can focus on 2 quality(work out)  sessions per week and the other days more at that comfortable pace to allow you to absorb/recover from the quality days.  It is important to have structure for a long term training approach with progression while keeping you healthy.

Here are some basics. Quality work outs are like a tempo miles, tempo intervals, harder intervals etc.  You can structure your training based on your goal race. For general conditioning which would allow you to just about hop in any race up to a half marathon you could do the following weekly. BUT, it is nice to back off a bit on quality in offseason but don't eliminate.  Here are quality work outs that can be part of a weekly schedule

Long run - you would consider this quality if you

    1. Run low miles

    2. Throw in some faster miles in it at marathon effort or do last 10-20% of it at a faster pace

        Generally, a long run is done about 2 min per mile slower than 5K race pace or 75-90 dec slower than half marathon pace

Tempo miles that have a similar physiological benefit.

    1.   Fast tempo- 3-4 miles at a pace about 30 sec slower than 5K pace

    2.  Moderate tempo 5 plus miles at marathon pace

    3.  Tempo intervals 3-5 X 1 mile at half marathon pace with 2 min jogs between

Intervals (rotate work outs)

    1. Critical velocity intervals or a pace around 10K effort. In season 5-6 X 1K or 6-8 X 3 min with 60-90 sec jogs  - follow this up with

          4 X  200m at fast pace

    2.  3-5K paced intervals like  6 X 800m  with 2-3 min  jogs 

    3. 10 X 1 min at a fast pace like mile pace with 1-2 min jog recovery 

If training for a half or full marathon, you can include the tempo work in your long run and one other day per week do some intervals within a longer mid week run.  All other days per week are run at a comfortable pace getting your miles in. It is fine to mix in some quick striders once or twice per week also in these easier paced runs.  In offseason, you just reduce volume of quality but you keep body ready for when ready to ramp up for race season you can get back at it.   The above gives you a variety of paces that allow you to enter any race at any time up to a half marathon and perform well.   With the above, there should be a gradual progression. Just don't jump into the work outs full go. Work up to it over several weeks. If body is sore, back off and run easy.