half training question (Read 1140 times)

I would build your mileage up to about 40-45/week and add in some speed work. For injury prevention what has worked best for me is not doing those things at the same time. You have a lot of time. Build mileage for a month or two, then hold somewhat steady for awhile and add in 1 day of speed stuff a week and go for a month or so, then build mileage again. As you get higher in mileage you may find the 10% rule a little unreasonable. Dont feel the need to push it. I usually do something like add 1 mile to 2 of my midweek runs one week, then add 2 miles to a long run another week. etc.

No expert here, but came from the same place a couple years ago...and it's must my 2c. First off, barring injury, you're going to be fine on your half. If you stay consistent, seven months from now that distance should just be another long run. A couple things I noted in your log: as you said, you built up pretty fast, I'd say keep it pretty steady for a couple more months to make sure you don't get injured, maybe no more than 30 mpw. I say this because, regardless of your previous cardiovascular conditioning, the data show that it takes 3 - 4 months to rebuild your musculoskeletal system to cope with the mechanical stresses of running, and it is during this time that injury risk is highest. You might be well-served by adding some additional cardio cross-training whenever you feel up to it. Also, your pace looks fast to this slowpoke, so just be sure that easy really is easy. And while it sounds trite, do listen to your body, don't let yourself get locked in to a prepackaged training plan. As for your winter training, well, people here either get on the treadmill to tough it out in the great outdoors. They'll tell you to HTFU I have the opposite problem (months of triple-digits) and have learned to both HTFU but also take it a little easier - extreme weather conditions simply make the workouts harder, and I've given myself permission to back off a little. Hope this helps. Arla

Your logs and mileage are very similar to mine (you are a little ahead of me). Mid 20's to lower 30's and 10 miles for a long run.. Additionally, I initially used Hal Higdon beginner program as a base, but I have been tayloring it to fit me (mainly I like to run 5 days per week with Mon and Fri off). This winter, I plan to run 20 miles per week between Mon thru Sat. And then use Sunday for a long run, building one or two miles every other Sunday until I get my ever other weekend run up to around 16 (so every other Sunday will be 10 Miles and the other Sunday build to 16)...maintain it thru the rest of the bad weather....and then re-asses where I am again in May....and begin training for an October 2009 Marathon. I have a 30K race in March to use as a guide to determine how i am getting along. Your current training could follow a program similar to mine (that is - if you wanted to do so)....

The speedwork is what I really liked about Hal Higdon's HM training. Every week one day rotates between intervals and tempo workouts, and then every so often there is a pace run. Gets you used to running faster for a longer period of time which helps when you want to race a half and not just finish one.