Beginners and Beyond

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Training and Running Your First Half (Read 130 times)


Sloooow.

    As probably the biggest n00b here, I have to add the occasional dose of extreme beginner.

     

    I'm thinking about Spring Half Marathons, and I'm looking at training plans. At the moment, I'm building my base, and I'm finding a huge range in recommended base going into training, and how much mileage during. My aim is RnR New Orleans beginning of February, and a local half the end of March. My original aim was to build my base to try for a sub-30 5K in November.

     

    What was your base going into half-marathon training? What plan did you follow? What was your peak mileage? How long had you been running?

     

    I like running 5 days a week, I need those two days off. I've been building my mileage since I had surgery in a kind of ebb and flow pattern. This week was my first 18 mile week.

     

    I love the variety of runners here, so I was interested on how others did it Smile

    redrum


    Caretaker/Overlook Hotel

      My base mileage going in was about 12 to 15/week.

       

      I followed absolutely NO plan.  (You don't have to but a plan as a "guide" is a good idea)

       

      My peak mileage was 30/week but I probably averaged 20 to 25.

       

      I had been running 2 years before I attempted the half.

       

      My advice would be twofold.......

       

      1. Increase your mileage using NO MORE than the 10% rule.  If you aren't looking until spring, you've got PLENTY of time to get up to 30mpw or better and I would recommend AT LEAST the 30mpw target.  You don't have to run 50 but 30 is significantly better than 25.
      2. Dont underestimate the half.  It is no joke.  I know on these boards you see the half marathon thrown around like a jog around the block anymore but respect the distance.  

       Randy

      MrNamtor


        Ive been running for 2 years.

         

        For the past year I've run an average of 35ish mpw, though really that means I've run 40ish mpw a lot of weeks and 30ish mpw in some cut back times.

         

        My 3 month-ish training plan for my first half a month ago was

         

        1) Run over 40 mpw whenever possible.

        2) Run 1 long run every week of 11-14 miles

        3) Do at least 1, sometimes 2 speed/quality runs a week

        4) Run no less than 5 days a week whenever possible

        5) Run without a rest for as many days in a row as i could before feeling very fatigued and degraded in performance.

         

         

        If you're thinking about a half 10 months from now, you have plenty of time to get your mileage up.  A lot of people run halfs on 25ish mpw, but personally, i would not feel comfortable running a race that's half my weekly mileage in one morning.

         

        EDIT: I wrote this BEFORE seeing redrums post, so this is not a reference to red's base. Red, if you did it on that base and it worked for you than more power to you. I'm just talking about myself.

        Runshortii


          I ran cross country/track 2004-2009, didn't run for 2 1/2 years, started running again late 2011, and ran my first HM in June 2012.

           

          My base mileage going in was 15-20 mpw maybe? I never went over 20 mpw during my HM "training". I put this in quotes as I would NOT recommend how I trained. I ran on and off, 15-20 mpw for 6ish weeks before my first HM, and my longest run was 10 miles, which I did once. I finished in 1:57 and didn't have to walk or stop, but the last 3 miles really really really sucked, and then I had IT band woes and achilles tendon woes for awhile. I wouldn't recommend my "training", the only reason I think it worked for me was because I wasn't really a beginner, and I had regularly done 12 mile long runs before I stopped running in 2009.

           

          I ran my 2nd HM in Sept 2012 and loosely followed the Ryan Hall HM plan. (I highly recommend this plan, however, it's a tough plan and I probably wouldn't recommend it to a beginning runner) Averaged probably 25-30 mpw. Did 2 quality workouts a week. Didn't run much for the past 3 weeks or so because of achilles tendonitis, but ran the HM in 1:48 and felt fantastic. My longest run was again only 10 miles, but having a higher mpw I think really helped me. Once again, I still don't really recommend my training methods. I've gotten by on minimum mileage and I'm working on consistently working up my mileage and sticking with it or it's going to bite me in the butt.

           

          You have plenty of time to get your mileage up. I would recommend at least 25-30 mpw, and build up slow. Nothing wrong with only running 5 days a week. I run 5 days a week as well. With school and work it's hard to fit in much more than that. Look at Hal Higdon's half marathon plans on his website, he seems to have good plans for beginners.

          wcrunner2


          Are we there, yet?

            My first race of about the HM distance was a 12-mile race. HMs were virtually unknown at the time. My base was about 45-50 mpw, possibly a little more because I was running 200+ miles a month by then, but 45-50 was about my average for the 6 months leading up to the race. My long run was only 10 miles. I'd been running a little under a year by race day. The types of canned plans we see now were not available either, but I was training under the direction of a coach and followed what she told me to run. Since time was a significant motivator we included a high level of quality workouts besides long runs. Obviously this is not typical so I don't recommend it as a matter of course, but it does illustrate what is possible for some people under some circumstances.

             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.

             

             

                 

            happylily


              There are many ways to do it and I'm sure you could get by on 25 mpw and a 10 mile LR. I think the key is always to try to do as much as you can possibly do. If that means 25 mpw, that's ok, but if you have time for 35, even better.

               

              I had been running 4 months when I started training for my first HM. I was up to 40 mpw, then. I used SmartCoach over on RW, simply because I was ignorant of other plans and that one was free. SmartCoach is sometimes stupid, but with the data I gave it, it produced a pretty good training plan for me this one time. My mileage while training for my half was 40-50 mpw and my long runs about 16 miles. I did speedwork once a week. Since I knew nothing about finish times, I asked other runners what a good first HM finish time would be for me and I was told sub-2. I told SmartCoach I wanted a 1:55 finish time and it gave me paces for training. I trained with those paces and finished in 1:54. When I think of it today I realize it was just a fluke. If only SmartCoach could make me run a 1:25 HM now, wouldn't that be nice? Big grin

              PRs: Boston Marathon, 3:27, April 15th 2013

                      Cornwall Half-Marathon, 1:35, April 27th 2013

              18 marathons, 18 BQs since 2010

              sheepla


                Since I knew nothing about finish times, I asked other runners what a good first HM finish time would be for me and I was told sub-2. I told SmartCoach I wanted a 1:55 finish time and it gave me paces for training. I trained with those paces and finished in 1:54. When I think of it today I realize it was just a fluke. If only SmartCoach could make me run a 1:25 HM now, wouldn't that be nice? 

                Lily, that's a great story.  I laughed and laughed at the thought of just randomly picking a finish time and training whatever paces I was told to get that random time.  Of course, you've got the talent to pull it off.

                  Well I am not qualified to give advice, but will share my experience. Basically I will reinforce the benefits of pure mileage volume - more mpw over a longer period of time. My first HM was on about 20 mpw, 3 days/wk & longest run of 12. It wasn't awful, but was kind of a slog. My 2nd was actually more of a fitness test in the middle of marathon training; I was at about 45 mpw, 5 days/wk with LR's up to 18. That HM ended up feeling like a "jog around the block" to me - felt easy, did not even make any water stops. And it was much faster than expected - a 13 min PR with 3 min negative split, despite no real change in training paces vs the first time around. I had no formal training plan and no speedwork, but achieved a 1 min/mile improvement based mainly on increased mileage volume. And not just the higher mpw, but as it was 10 months later, had that many more total miles under my belt. 

                   

                  Good luck!

                  Dave

                  Love the Half


                    Heh, heh.  Smart coach will let you run any time you like.  Plug in a world record for the marathon, give it a current marathon time of 5 hours, and it will spit out a plan.

                    Short term goal: 17:59 5K

                    Mid term goal:  2:54:59 marathon

                    Long term goal: To say I've been a runner half my life.  (I started running at age 45).

                    Love the Half


                      My first half marathon came after I had been running a total of two months and my longest run had been seven miles and I'd only done that once.  I don't think I have ever hurt that much.  It was awful but I finished in 2:28.  Six months later, I ran another half marathon. I don't know what my mileage was like because I wasn't keeping a log at the time but I think my long runs were more like 10-12 miles and I was running 30-35 miles per week.  I had a much better experience and finished in 1:54.

                       

                      I have seen a general guideline that your weekly mileage should be at least double the race distance unless you're talking about ultras and I would agree with that.  If you are regularly (not peak but regularly) putting in 25-30 miles per week, you should be able to complete a half marathon with relative ease.

                       

                      I never followed a plan.  I just kept increasing mileage and started doing some speed work when I could run about 3 miles.

                      Short term goal: 17:59 5K

                      Mid term goal:  2:54:59 marathon

                      Long term goal: To say I've been a runner half my life.  (I started running at age 45).


                      No more marathons

                        Hi Coralie,

                        In looking at my races, in regards to the more common distances (5k, 10k, 15k, half and full) I've run plenty of all the others (including 6 marathons) but only 2 half’s (somewhere in the back of my head I seem to remember a third long long ago, but can't find it in my log books - so maybe not).  So I don't really have much basis for comments on this distance.

                         

                        As to your specific questions - for my real first half, I ran that the week before my first marathon back in 1981, so that would have some rather different training characteristics and it was so long ago as to no longer be relevant.   I stopped running for 23 years and started again in 2008 – so I kind of look at this as all new again.  Kind of nice to run my first whatever for the second time.

                         

                        How long had you been running?   About 18 months (this time)

                        What was your base going into half-marathon training?   Average of about 17 per week with a high of 22.

                        What plan did you follow?  None

                        What was your peak mileage?  27, with long runs of 11

                         

                        The advice offered by redrum is spot on.  I'm looking at a couple of half's this fall, and will probably look at using the Ryan Hall plan mentioned by runshort (the operative words there being "look at"  hee hee!)

                        Boston 2014 - a 33 year journey

                        Lordy,  I hope there are tapes. 

                        He's a leaker!


                        Hip Redux

                           

                           

                          How long had you been running?   About 18 months (this time)

                          What was your base going into half-marathon training?   Average of about 17 per week with a high of 22.

                          What plan did you follow?  None

                          What was your peak mileage?  27, with long runs of 11

                           

                           

                           

                          These are about my answers also, for both my HMs - except I'd only been running about 6 months total before the first one (which was 2:17).  I did a bit of biking along with the running both times, too.  The last few miles were hard, but I never felt like I had to stop and walk or anything like that.  More of a "I WANT THIS OVER" feeling.  lol


                          Of course, more miles are better, but I was perfectly fine with my times and performance given that I've battled injuries for most of the last 5 years...

                           


                          SheCan

                            What was your base going into half-marathon training? What plan did you follow? What was your peak mileage? How long had you been running?

                            I love the variety of runners here, so I was interested on how others did it Smile

                             

                            My base was 15ish.

                            I followed no plan, I just picked out a race and decided I had to be able to run 13 miles by race date.

                            I don't remember what my peak mileage was.  I'm pretty sure it wasn't over 25.

                            I'd been running about 1-1/2 years.

                             

                            To me, the HM seems to be the most flexible of all races.  I didn't go into my first one thinking, I'm going to make this a super fast time.  I just wanted to prove to myself that I was a real runner.  What training you do, depends on your goals-- do you want to be fast, finish in a certain amount of time.  My goal was to run the whole thing, finish it, and to do it all without injury.  All the above were accomplished.

                            Cherie

                            "We do not become the people who this world needs simply by turning our backs on anyone we don’t like, trust, or deem healthy enough to be in our presence. "  ---- Shasta Nelson

                              What was your base going into half-marathon training? What plan did you follow? What was your peak mileage? How long had you been running?

                               

                               

                              My first half was run during training for my first full, with about 6 months of non-casual training beforehand.  It was the Higdon Int 2 plan for the full, which left me way under-prepared to race 26.2, but it did just fine for the half.

                               

                              Peak weekly mileage for that cycle before the half was 63, with 6 LRs of 20+ in the 6 weeks before the race.  (And that volume was OK too, but all the LRs were at easy pace.  That was a fatal flaw for the full.)

                              Rondog65


                                I have recently completed 2 Half Marathons and by no means an expert or a real runner.  I elected to use Run Keeper, IPhone App, beginner Half Marathon.  I liked this as it was pretty conservative, 4 days a week with manageable weekly increases that fit my schedule.  Don't want to overdue the training and get injured.

                                 

                                I have been running on and off for several years, however I have been consistently running for the past 18 months.

                                 

                                Good luck and choose something that will fit your schedule, ability and comfort level.  It does no good to get hurt or discouraged and not achieved your goal of time and distance.  I have thoroughly enjoyed my running experiences.

                                Ron's PRs 5K 24:14 (12/07/2013); Half Marathon 1:53:33 (5/26/2013)

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