Hi I have been running for 6 or 7 months now am male age 37, and am doing my first half after a 3 yr break from running. Gave up smoking last April and took up exercise, biked the summer and then took up running. For the last couple of months have increased my milage to about 80 miles a week, doing double runs a day and long runs at the weekend. I have good natural speed and average 7 min miles for nearly all my runs. Here is an example of my long run on Saturday 15:36 miles 1hr46m15s 6:55 avg. Here are the splits 6.19 6.28 6.39 6.40 7.14 6.55 6.41 7.09 7.12 7.11 6.58 6.45 7.14 7.51 6.45 6.28. How with 7 weeks till the half can I improve further. I set myself a target of below 1:30 but now think with a better aproach than just milage I might be able to do maybe 1:25. Thanks
Comments
You've got some great pace there. How hard are you pushing yourself on training runs? Really you should be 60-90 seconds per mile slower than race pace for your long run (even more depending on what training plan you're on), but at the pace you're going a 13.1 mile training run will only take you 1:31.
If, as I suspect, you're doing your long run at race pace then back it off for the rest of the seven weeks. Then when you get to race day your legs will feel fantastic and you easily be able to knock 10-20 seconds per mile off your current training pace (which would equate to a 1:26-1:28 HM).
It sounds as though from this, and the other thread you had, that you are a bit of a one pace runner. I think benefit would come from some variety, and some quality over quantity - 80 mpw seems excessive for 1:25 - 1:30. Personally I would slow your long run right down, slow most of your other runs right down and midweek include a tempo session and/or an interval session. Put your hard efforts into these. You are doing far more mileage than I would ever consider, and you are training for a shorter distance. I think I would have burn't out by now!
"not really had a day of from doing something in months. I think my body has adapted to the work I just want to get faster"
sounds like an injury waiting to happen
The slow stuff helped me build a decent aerobic base. That will serve you well in Ultras. It helped me to a sub3 hr marathon, sub 1:22 half by combining with some tempo runs midweek.
It would be interesting to know your heart rate on your reguar 7 min/m runs along with your max HR to see how hard you are working