Short-time lurker to what has quickly become my favorite thread in the FFA. I'm begrudgingly reaching out for any training advice that those more experienced/knowledgable than me are willing to provide.
Target: Half-Marathon on June 8th, sub-1:45 goal (~8min/mile pace)
Background: I'm a 36yo non-runner in the sense that I didn't run track/CC in high school, though I've been a runner in the sense that it's what I've historically done a fair amount of running to train for other sports and generally stay in shape. I had never run longer than 5-6 miles prior to completing my first marathon in 2004, with my usual run being 2-4 miles at around 7min/mile pace which is fairly fast for me. I set my sights on a goal of a sub-4 hour marathon, boinked at 19 miles, but recovered to finish in 3:59:XX. While my knees ached for so long after the marathon that I vowed I'd never run one again, what was key for me was learning through that experience that faster wasn't always better when it came to running for fitness as I obviously saw far better results when running longer distances at slower paces than shorter distances faster. Fast forward to 2012 when my wife got the itch to attempt her first marathon, so in support of her I trained with and ran alongside her during her first marathon, finishing in 4:45:XX which was under her goal of sub-11min miles. Other than those two marathons, I haven't done much in the way of races. That brings us to the half-marathon on June 8th which we just signed. I'd like to try to run at a decent (for me) pace. I was pretty ill in January/February of this year, worked out hard in March, and have been down to a couple 4-5 mile runs per week during April due to lousy weather and a bit of laziness, or a lot of laziness and a bit of lousy weather.
Advice Sought: I'm down to less than 7 weeks to train for this half, and am basically looking for any tips or advice about how to best approach these 7 weeks from a training perspective considering I've never really trained to run "faster" than I normally would for a long distance race. I don't feel like sub-8min miles is unrealistic, though I'm just not quite sure what my training program should be in order to accomplish this. Based on what I've been reading in here of late, I know for certain that I need to incorporate differing types of runs that I don't presently do...speed, tempo, etc. I've been mostly a "lock it in at 7-9min/mile pace and run X miles" kind of a runner, which I now realize isn't going to get me to where I would like to be.
Resources: I religiously wear my Garmin 305, and monitor my HR, time, and distance. That said, I'm not certain where my various HR zones are, when to train in each zone, etc. Also, if anyone has a recommended software for importing my Garmin data into on the Mac I'd like to start better tracking that again as I haven't imported any workouts since switching over from a laptop to the Mac about a year ago. Also, based on all the recommendations here I ordered the Advanced Marathoning book, which should arrive tomorrow. I doubt that I'll be able to plow through it in time to help me over the next seven weeks though, which is why I'm hoping someone here may be able to help a novice out. I tentatively have a schedule that's 6 days per week of running, where only 1 day of that is for speed work. Six days per week may be one too many, and I worry that 1 day per week of speedwork isn't enough? Any advice would be much appreciated!
By the way, I appreciate all the posters in this thread that clearly provide so much motivation to others. It's fun to follow other runners, and see how supportive so many posters are in this thread. LIke I said, easily one of my favorites to follow now.
Target: Half-Marathon on June 8th, sub-1:45 goal (~8min/mile pace)
Background: I'm a 36yo non-runner in the sense that I didn't run track/CC in high school, though I've been a runner in the sense that it's what I've historically done a fair amount of running to train for other sports and generally stay in shape. I had never run longer than 5-6 miles prior to completing my first marathon in 2004, with my usual run being 2-4 miles at around 7min/mile pace which is fairly fast for me. I set my sights on a goal of a sub-4 hour marathon, boinked at 19 miles, but recovered to finish in 3:59:XX. While my knees ached for so long after the marathon that I vowed I'd never run one again, what was key for me was learning through that experience that faster wasn't always better when it came to running for fitness as I obviously saw far better results when running longer distances at slower paces than shorter distances faster. Fast forward to 2012 when my wife got the itch to attempt her first marathon, so in support of her I trained with and ran alongside her during her first marathon, finishing in 4:45:XX which was under her goal of sub-11min miles. Other than those two marathons, I haven't done much in the way of races. That brings us to the half-marathon on June 8th which we just signed. I'd like to try to run at a decent (for me) pace. I was pretty ill in January/February of this year, worked out hard in March, and have been down to a couple 4-5 mile runs per week during April due to lousy weather and a bit of laziness, or a lot of laziness and a bit of lousy weather.
Advice Sought: I'm down to less than 7 weeks to train for this half, and am basically looking for any tips or advice about how to best approach these 7 weeks from a training perspective considering I've never really trained to run "faster" than I normally would for a long distance race. I don't feel like sub-8min miles is unrealistic, though I'm just not quite sure what my training program should be in order to accomplish this. Based on what I've been reading in here of late, I know for certain that I need to incorporate differing types of runs that I don't presently do...speed, tempo, etc. I've been mostly a "lock it in at 7-9min/mile pace and run X miles" kind of a runner, which I now realize isn't going to get me to where I would like to be.
Resources: I religiously wear my Garmin 305, and monitor my HR, time, and distance. That said, I'm not certain where my various HR zones are, when to train in each zone, etc. Also, if anyone has a recommended software for importing my Garmin data into on the Mac I'd like to start better tracking that again as I haven't imported any workouts since switching over from a laptop to the Mac about a year ago. Also, based on all the recommendations here I ordered the Advanced Marathoning book, which should arrive tomorrow. I doubt that I'll be able to plow through it in time to help me over the next seven weeks though, which is why I'm hoping someone here may be able to help a novice out. I tentatively have a schedule that's 6 days per week of running, where only 1 day of that is for speed work. Six days per week may be one too many, and I worry that 1 day per week of speedwork isn't enough? Any advice would be much appreciated!
By the way, I appreciate all the posters in this thread that clearly provide so much motivation to others. It's fun to follow other runners, and see how supportive so many posters are in this thread. LIke I said, easily one of my favorites to follow now.
I see where you're coming from with concerns about advising 30 miles per week, but the schedule that he laid out actually looks perfectly reasonable to me and is actually less mileage than the program I was looking at following for the next 7 weeks (which seemed a bit excessive).
: 7 weeks until the race means you have 5 weeks for productive training. You won't improve over those final two weeks. For the long runs, I'd suggest 8, 10, 7, 10, 12 over those five weeks. Real slow running helps improve your aerobic capacity, but I don't think you'll get a lot of that over this short a time period. So my thought on pacing is, maybe, 8:45-9:00/mile for your 8:00/mile race goal. Maybe pick up the tempo for the last mile or two of the long runs, if it feels OK, to simulate race pacing when tired. My other thought is to convert some of those 4-6 milers to something less, but at a harder tempo. I.e., get in some sub-8:00 pacing so your legs are used to working harder and faster than race pace. That could be an occasional mile at sub-8:00 pace, or some repeat half-miles or quarter-miles at a good clip. Another approach, discussed around here lately, is to add some striders to your regular runs ...just pick up the pace strong for short stretches over the latter part of the run. Be sure to get your rest days. If you push harder these next two weeks, then back off with an easier week before another two week push.
Tim
I am just not trained like I have been in the past and I am carrying way too much weight for this time of year. I am still looking forward to it. As TM can attest, this is a beautiful (and brutal) trail. AND, I won a FB promotion, getting VIP tent access. I'll be able to stretch, chill and walk out and drop in my wave. Even better, the port-a-john situation at this event in awful. No worries for me, there is a VIP port-a-john 
