Half Marathon Training Update

With 5 weeks to go until my first (and last) half marathon, I am confident that I will finish and pretty confident that I will be able to run it in under 2.5 hours.

Training has been going well, though rain has caused me to shift some training days around in the last couple of weeks.

The Why?

I want the bragging rights, pure and simple. I want to be able to say that I did it. Yes, this is only a half and bragging rights for a full marathon would be even better, but there is no way I am doing a full. I am hating doing the half and am very much wanting it to be over already.

The How?

I am using a Garmin Coaching Plan and chose coach Greg McMillan. This is the same coach I used for the 10k and felt comfortable with his style for this distance. The training schedule is pretty basic at 4 days per week.

• 1 – 2 short slow days
  • Typically around 4 miles at a 12 min/mi pace
• 1 – 2 speed work days
  • Stride repeats – something like 8 x 400m at a fast pace
  • Sprint repeats – something like 12 x 20 secs at a really fast pace
• 1 long run day
  • Progression run – Long run that starts out at a slower pace and ends faster
  • Slow run – Long run at a steady slow pace

The distances/run time has steadily increased each week.

The Pain?

Absolutely! This has been, by far, the most difficult training. I do not look forward to my long run each week. My long run will typically go like this:

• Around a 1 mile warm up. This is a pretty standard warm up for my runs of any length. I will typically hold around a 15 – 14min/mi pace for my warm up. Slow, for sure, but helps me loosen up and get used to the motion.
• It generally takes about 2 miles to get comfortable with my training pace.
• Miles 2 – 6 are pretty chill and I can maintain pace quite easily unless there are bloody hills.
• Mile 7 – 8 I hit a wall and the remainder of my run is going to be dictated by how well I get over that wall.

My pacing is maintained first by cadence (measured in steps per minute) and then by stride length. For a 12 – 10min/mi pace I will typically shoot for a 170spm cadence and adjust for specific pace by changing my stride length. For faster paces, I will bump cadence up to 175spm or even 178spm if I really need to book it. I hold cadence using music beats. I have playlists for song that are 170, 175 and 178 beats per minute. I choose the playlist that corresponds to the cadence I need to hold a pace.

In order to maintain good running form, I want my stride to land close to the midline of my body. Over striding, landing your forward foot too far ahead of your midline, is bad form and can lead to injury due to the added stress on the body. My stride length adjustments at those cadences allow me to stay in pace ranges without over striding.

The long run is quite hard on my body, especially my joints and tendons. It will takes me about 12 hours or so to recover from a long run. During that time I feel terrible. My body aches, I get chills, have difficulty walking due to sore muscles. It does not take more than an hour after the long run for Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness (DOMS) to set in. I try to counter this and speed up healing by getting plenty of fluids in and having some protein, then climb into bed and shiver for a bit until I manage to fall asleep.

I thought training for/running the 10k was bad, but doing this half really sucks. I suppose in a way, that makes the completion that much more important. It will be a real accomplishment and crossing that finish line is going to feel so good.

What’s Up Next?

I am actually going to be taking a few months off from training for any particular runs. I will still get out on the road to keep myself active and engaged in running, but there are some things around home that I want to tackle and training does not leave much time for that. I have a backyard that needs much work.

Toward the end of the summer I will set my sights on training again for the December race that I have done the past 2 years. I have various goals that I would like to accomplish, all at shorter distances:

• 5k Goals
  • I still want to get to that 27 minute 5k.
  • I’d like to do a 5k trail race next year.
• 10k Goals
  • Sub 1 hour 10k

I didn’t really think I’d like to do another 10k, but this half training has gotten me thinking about doing one 10k per year and hitting a goal for each. I actually got a 10k PR during the half training.

Smashing PRs

In the past month of training for the half marathon, I have smashed a couple of personal records in the 1 mile, 10k and longest run categories: