RW's 10-week 1:50-plus half-marathon schedules

Having done the Berko Half at the beginning of March in 2:09, I thought I would try a slightly more structured approach for the Keswick Half in May, but am confused about weeks 9 & 10 being the same?

Anyone know what I should be doing Week 9? I don't want to wreck everything, which seems to be going quite well, by getting it all wrong!

Thanks! :-)
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Comments

  • (Oops, forgot to switch on notification - Dur!)
  • Stumpy, sorry I can't help. I too need some help - am on week 4 of the same schedule - 1/2 marathon in 1:50+ but missed my 7-8 mile run at the weekend. Shall I just carry on as normal? Am planning on the Plymouth Half, known as a challenging course!
    Also, where it says 7-8 mile (or 1 hour), does this mean do 7-8 miles, and if you do this in less than an hour you can just stop at an hour?
  • Hi Emma,
    I'm doing the four days as Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday, so would probably try to do the long run either Tuesday (preferably, so you have more time to recover before the next one at the next weekend but a bit late now!) or Thursday (probably too close to the next one), as its the long run, with the time on your feet what you need to get used to I think.

    Mind you, its still early in the schedule for you, so if you've missed it, well, accept it, cos you don't want to go mad trying to make it up and hurt yourself.

    Having said that, there are loads of people on the forums that are more experienced than me - lets hope someone offers us both some advice!

    Good luck with Plymouth - Berko was hard, which is why I thought I ought to approach Keswick sensibly!
  • Thanks Stumpy - in the land of the blind the one eyedman is king!
  • Anyone else like to help us out?


    Pleeeaaassse?
  • Maybe its just you and me, everyone else does them in less than 1:50. I guess anyone that knows wouldn't bother reading this thread!
  • Stumpy/Emma..
    I did Silverstone in 2.05, had already entered for Stratford at the end of April...
    Two days after S/S suffered injury that has kept me out of running for almost 5 weeks...
    Have been training again since Sun 30th...
    I now have 17 days to regain what I lost... as far as I can see, not a chance...
    So, you certainly are not on your own in the time frame..!!
    I would appreciate any helpful advice too!! :o)
  • Back to do the notification thingy...!
  • I don't claim to be an expert here by any means, only having run one half marathon before, however, I reckon Stumpy that the reason that weeks 9 and 10 are the same is because you're tapering, slowing down on all the training so that you can be fully fit and full of energy for Race Day...well it's a thought! I'm sure RW wouldn't have got it wrong would they?....would they?? By the way, there's no way I'll be running Plymouth in less than 1:50 either!

    Emma, I would run 7 or 8 miles or for an hour, which ever take you less time. (Does that make sense?!) So if you can run 7 miles in 50 mins then that's all you need to do....I think!
  • Hi Spooner, I agree about the tapering, but the bit that worried me was the mention of Race Day twice.....! I figured once would be enough / more than enough!

    And Emma - Ha indeed!!
  • Oh yeah, you're right - maybe it is a mistake then....??!

  • Bec xxBec xx ✭✭✭
    hi
    i am doing the great north run as my first half marathon and am going to aim for 2 hours ish! i would have expected that the training schedule would have gone over 13 miles at some point. will i reach 13 and stop because my legs know no diffent?
  • I've been told that like the marathon you don't need to train over 12 miles & you will be able to get round by will power, stamina, determination, bloody mindedness, crowd cheering you on, etc etc. I hope this is right!
  • annajoannajo ✭✭✭
    I can thoroughly recommend the other schedules that runners world have for the half marathon, 12-week schedules, but they are unfortunately subscriber only.

    I followed these a little while ago for sub 2 hour half, and although I didn't make it to the end of the schedule because of injury (nothing to do with the schedule, my IT band was stretched to breaking point!) I took 5 minutes off of my 10k time, and was going well for a sub 2 hour despite having only run 2.22 before a year ago. Felt a lot fitter as well

  • Hi Annajo - Are they different to these then? I am a subscriber and thought these were the only ones - maybe the others would give me the answer I have been looking for! Could you let me know where I should be looking?

    Thank you!
  • Hello guys - I am going to do a half-marathon in September so plenty of time for me still.. I subscribe to the US edition so I do not have access to the subscriber only area here. Could anybody e-mail me the 12-week schedule? (prada@gazeta.pl)
    Thanks a lot.
  • annajoannajo ✭✭✭
    stumpy, i'll try and post a link to them. not sure if I can though from subs only pages.

    just have to find them again first!
  • annajoannajo ✭✭✭
    here goes, its the second set of schedules on the half marathon page, below the set 1 schedules

    half schedules
  • Thanks Annajo - if it doesn't work, just let me know where they are and I'll go look at them - I'm a subscriber so I should be OK!
  • Doh - these are the ones I started with, following the third set, looking for 1:50-plus, but there are two race days!

    I think I'll compare the sub 1:50 set's last two weeks and try to apply the logic to the 1:50plus - we'll see if it works!

    Thanks for your help Annajo! Wish me luck, the race is on the 4th and I have to do well as I am being sponsored for it and loads of people now know that I am running, whereas with Berko, my first half, not many people knew!
  • annajoannajo ✭✭✭
    stumpy, look below the schedules you are using, further down the page. there is a whole different range of schedules.

    good luck, though, which race are you doing?

    (sorry if you already said! memory is bad today!)
  • Guys

    very sorry for such a lethargic response - I've fixed week 9 now - hope it's not too late... and good luck!

    Sean, RW
  • Sean

    I am struggling a bit with my long run on this schedule; I'm on week 6, doing fine with days 1-3 but last week, the end of week 5, I did an 8 and struggled, needing to walk a few times. So this week, I though that instead of doing the recommended 9-10 mile slow I should do the 8 again to consolidate this before I move on to the 9-10.

    What are you thoughts with this? The reason I'm behind on the long ones is because of a misspent lost weekend...

    The race is 25th May - Plymouth half.

    Thanks very much,
    Emma
  • Cheers Sean - that's a relief!! I had been about right thanks to looking at the other schedules and guessing!

    Annajo - I'm doing Keswick Half a week on Sunday (4th May) to raise money for Milton Keynes General Hospital Intensive Care Unit, who looked after a friend of mine recently. Sadly, Lynn passed away but the care and support she and her partner got was fantastic. Thankfully I've managed to get sponsorship that is based on finishing not time taken!!
  • annajoannajo ✭✭✭
    best of luck stumpy, hope you raise shed loads of money and have a good day.
  • Good luck Stumpy, All the best!
  • popsiderpopsider ✭✭✭
    I wouldn't worry about missing sessions. If there are relatively few long runs in your schedule and you miss one you might want to replace an easier session with the long run you missed. So long as you don't try and catch up on missed sessions by dramatically upping your training or adding hard sessions near the race it will make no difference. The most important thing is to listen to your body, if you feel tired take it easier than the schedule suggests, if you are finding the pace too easy then try pushing a little harder occasionally.

    If you find you are always missing sessions then maybe look at schedule with fewer days running. Some quite reasonable runners only do 3 days a week - in fact I bet even 6/7 day a week trainers still probably do most of their quality training over 3 sessions.
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