r/artc Nov 19 '24

Half Marathon Prep

Hi! I’m looking for some advice or best practices on how to build up for the half marathon. I noticed that I’m a few weeks ahead of schedule on the hal higdon training block and curious if I should keep building my mileage or stay at the current mileage and aim to peak at half marathon date?

Basically, I did 8 miles for my long run last weekend and still have 11 weeks to go for my half marathon date. Originally, I was planning to keep building to 12 pre-race, but noticed that I'll hit a long run of 12 miles about 5 weeks out from race day. So I’m wondering if I’m better off staying at 9 or so miles for a few more weeks now, before increasing mileage further to avoid over training or continue building to 12 and then figuring out a maintenance plan when i get there?

Would be awesome to hear how folks think about prepping for the half, if they’re confident the mileage will be there on race day? Are there any guides out there to potentially train maintenance miles 4-5 weeks out from race day?

Thanks you so much for your inputs!

9 Upvotes

11 comments sorted by

1

u/toptoppings Nov 19 '24

ChatGPT says to stay at 9 miles for a few more weeks and then start building up the long run with 6 weeks to go ahead of race day. Any advice in support of this strategy or to the contrary would be super appreciated!

2

u/RunningPath 42F, Advanced Turtle (aka Seriously Slow); 24:21 5k; 1:55 HM Nov 20 '24

Aside from whatever advice other people give you, I would definitely advise against using ChatGPT for training advice

1

u/Aggie_Engineer_24601 Nov 19 '24

I’d add a down week, maybe right before a tune up race or when you’re 5 weeks out so you can really push those last few weeks.

I also would consider swapping long runs out for long run workouts. For example 4 weeks out you might do 12 miles with 4-5 at goal pace.

1

u/toptoppings Nov 20 '24

Thanks for the advice. Sounds like I should keep building up my distance and then play with the pace on long runs

1

u/SirBruceForsythCBE Nov 20 '24

If you're not feeling any bad effects from running then run a bit more.

It is fine to increase overall mileage, and long run distance as long as you are adding in recovery time.

If your long run ends up 14 miles this is ok. You're not limited to 12/13

1

u/toptoppings Nov 20 '24

Thanks! what i'm trying to figure out at this stage is if there are essentially diminishing returns going beyond 9 miles for my long run right now, when i could stay at 9 and potentially have more legs during the week to work on more hills or speedier work.

Overall it sounds like i should keep building the long run though and then leave some room to do a race pace 13 mile run about two weeks out from the half.

1

u/SirBruceForsythCBE Nov 20 '24

You want to increase mileage if you can.

When you say "race pace 13 miles" do you mean a 13 mile run with some sections at race pace or are you running the whole 13 miles at your race pace?

1

u/toptoppings Nov 20 '24

Truthfully, not sure exactly how I want to execute those longer runs in the later stages of the training block. That’s why I’m trying to think out loud here and hear out any advice that people may have

1

u/SirBruceForsythCBE Nov 21 '24

There are a couple of ways to get some quality into your long runs.

  1. Fast finish progression - start easy, build to a nice steady pace half way through, get up to marathon effort, then half marathon effort and finish with 3k or so at threshold

  2. Long steady run - not easy, right on the boarder between what a lot of people call zone 2 and zone 3

  3. Half marathon pace efforts - 2 x 5k at half marathon pace during the middle of your long run.

  4. Over/under - 10k in the middle of your long run with alternating kms between slightly faster then half marathon pace and slightly slower. They should average out at your half pace

2

u/RunningPath 42F, Advanced Turtle (aka Seriously Slow); 24:21 5k; 1:55 HM Nov 20 '24

I think if you follow the plan you have you will be fine to finish the race. In general I think especially more beginning runners should stick to an established plan at first before figuring out longer term what works for them. 

Most people here are probably running 15-16 mile long runs for a half. But this comes with more experience running! If you have fun doing this half I'd recommend looking at some of the other training resources out there, reading some of the recommended books about training that typically include plans for different race distances 

1

u/toptoppings Nov 20 '24

Yea, that’s what I’m learning.. that people train to 15 or so miles prior to the race, which is a couple miles beyond where I was planning on being come race day, but I have the lead time to add that in. So I’ll probably do that too, if that’s generally how folks approach it