Hi
I have just started training for a half marathon and was looking for guidance on a good target to set myself. I am a fairly fit 19 year old with a little experience running shorter distances.
I know that sub 2 hours is an ambitious target for a first half marathon but my easy pace is around 8:40 and my medium pace is around 8:00. This is the pace I feel comfortable running at. Would it be sensible to maintain this pace and slowly up the mileage, or slow the pace down first?
I have started training before but it was ruined by s broken arm two weeks in. Before Friday I hadn't run since last summer. I did a moderate intensity 5k run, where I upped the pace to 7:15 for the last mile and felt strong. Today I did a 7k run in 35:40 and ran the last mile in 7:34.
Am I going the right way about my training early on? I feel like I have to be exhausted when I stop my run so I always up the pace in my last mile. Should I be focusing more on slowing the pace down? Or should I continue upping the mileage at the same pace?" I ask because I anticipate that I'll hit a wall at some point where I won't be able to maintain this pace. It's concerning me slightly because an "easy/slightly moderate "pace would project to a finishing time of 1:45-1:50 which seems absurd and out of reach.
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated at this early stage
Thanks
Tom
Comments
1) I don't think you need to be exhausted when you finish your run.
2) won't your target depend on when the half marathon is?
Hi Tom
My 17 year old daughter did a 2:07 for her first HM with no base fitness and a 12 week training programme that started with run 10 mins walk 5 run 10 mins as that was all she was capable of - what I am trying to say is that sub 2 hours fro a 19 year old male who has done some running, all be it at short distances, is not an ambitious target at all.
Find a 5 mile race or local parkrun and run it as fast as you can. Then take that time and crunch it into a training speed calculator. Then following a training plan following those training zones for 12 to 16 weeks. As Literatin says above though don't do all your training runs so you are exhausted when you are finished as that is counterproductive (impacts on next trainnig run and also raises risk of injury).
Based on the times you have quoted above I would think with the correct mileage under your belt you should be able to hit 1:40 - 1:45 and possibly even faster.
Thats something I need to work on, staying disciplined so that I don't dramatically up the pace for the final mile or two. I've entered a 10k race for the middle of March, and I'm planning on doing a slow 10k tomorrow, and then alternating between increasing distance and speed on different days in the week. Thanks for the info on your daughter, its very helpful. I'll set my target a bit higher then and try and increase the mileage steadily.
Thank you
That's something I'll bear in mind, thanks
With respect, I run a bit slower than you for most of my runs, with lower overall mileage, and my HM time is a lot quicker. If you really are running 80mpw averaging quicker than 7m/m I'm surprised you haven't broken down by now... or run a much quicker HM. I'd suggest you slow down most of your running considerably and save the quicker paces for quality sessions.
Realistically if you can do training like that you should be looking at a sub 80 half.