One Year to Train for a Half Marathon
May 17, 2021 5:02 AM Subscribe
I turn 40 in 2022. I last ran a marathon when I was 22. I’d like to do it again - and beat my time from 18 years ago. What’s the best training calendar/plan out there?
Basically, I’m trying to run a half in under 2:30. Very attainable. Today I run 3 miles three times per week at a pace of anywhere from 10:30 - 11:30/mile. I also try to strength train on off days full body 2-3 times a week. (There are of course variances week-to-week due to life.) I have admittedly put on the Covid-19 (or...you know, 25) in the last year as well, so getting back into shape is a goal, too. I used to run sub-30min 5k’s pre-pandemic.
I recall leaning on Hal Higdon heavily 18 years ago, but in revisiting the plans, they seem to totally forgo weight training, which seems like I’d be missing out on something critical. The half I want to run will next be run in person (I hope!) in 2022 (Mini Marathon in Indy), so I have about a year to prepare.
What are your plans that have worked for you?
Basically, I’m trying to run a half in under 2:30. Very attainable. Today I run 3 miles three times per week at a pace of anywhere from 10:30 - 11:30/mile. I also try to strength train on off days full body 2-3 times a week. (There are of course variances week-to-week due to life.) I have admittedly put on the Covid-19 (or...you know, 25) in the last year as well, so getting back into shape is a goal, too. I used to run sub-30min 5k’s pre-pandemic.
I recall leaning on Hal Higdon heavily 18 years ago, but in revisiting the plans, they seem to totally forgo weight training, which seems like I’d be missing out on something critical. The half I want to run will next be run in person (I hope!) in 2022 (Mini Marathon in Indy), so I have about a year to prepare.
What are your plans that have worked for you?
Best answer: Most running plans won't implicitly include a strength training plan.
Do your strength training on the same days as any workouts in your plan.
You didn't say when in 2022, but I'll assume that you've got a year, as most races (in the northern hemisphere) are may-oct. I'd say don't worry about your half-marathon plan until the 3-4 months before your race. In the meantime:
1) start doing a long run once per week. There's many ways/goals for describing a long run, but start at about 1.5x your normal run.
2) safely get your volume up (by time, or distance). Despite 10%/week being the max volume increase, remember that doesn't mean "aim for 10% week over week every week." When you're as low as you currently are, going above 10% isn't that bad per week. But at the 40km-70km/week is the danger zone where people tend to injure themselves. As someone who was in the 40km-70km/week during his upper 30's and got injured a few times, I'd say aim for 5% improvement 2x per cycle, and do a cutback week (30-40% less volume) every 4 weeks, rather than 4-6 weeks. The week after your cutback week, you either aim to maintain the same mileage, or increase 5% from the week before the cutback. The cutback week defines the cycle where I advised at most 2 5% increases. 40-70km is the injury zone for runners.
The rule of thumb is 1-2 days for neuromuscular improvements, 3-5 weeks for cardio improvements, 4-6 weeks for skeletal muscular improvements and 3-6 months for bone/tendon improvements. It's that later part that's so important, and why many get injured trying to go to fast. Tendons/bones take a long time to remodel.
Remember, 40 is when you enter the "masters" category of running. You don't heal/recover as fast. After injuries/etc in the 38-39 range, moving from the 40-70km danger zone, I realized that I couldn't safely to 3+ quality workouts per week. So while I aim to run 6-7 days/week, but that's aerobic; only 1-2 times per week do I a workout with speed.
For a well-run half-marathon you probably want to be doing over 60km/week; this likely means over 5 hours per week, and running 5+ days per week. You won't (and shouldn't) be at that point tomorrow, but be prepared for time commitments if you want to hit this goal. Really, up until you're in the 80-100 miles/week, the first answer that you'll here if you ask "how can I get my race time faster" will be "more aerobic running." But remember to temper it with avoiding injury.
3) Lots of distance running (if your race is a mile or over, you're a distance runner) is stamina. You probably already have the speed to do a 2:30 half (can you run once around a 400m track in about 3m 4sec?). a 2:30 half is a bit over a 12 min/mile pace, so you *already* have the speed; congrats!
The way to increase your stamina is with "slow" aerobic running. If you're a 39 year old who's working on becoming athletic a simple rule of thumb is the MAF 180 method. You're getting back into training; you haven't been running 4+ times/week, so you have 180-39-5 - 136. So when you're running, aim for your HR to be in the 126-136 range.
Given your currently described capability this probably means that you might end up walking many (or all) hills, and maybe some flats. Your body/stamina really does get better with time, but most recreational runners will be doing short workouts (3 miles at an ~11 minute pace is 33 minutes) which put them in an anerobic state. You'll get some short term gains from that, but you won't help yourself in the long term, and risk burning out a bit. I bet if you record your HR and then just run and record your running as you normally do it without looking at your watch once, that your HR is hitting 150+ at some points.
You've started running at a golden time; optical heart rate are pretty good for consistent running, and bluetooth/ant+ chest straps (and watches with the feature to pair with them) are cheap if your skin doesn't work well with optical HR. If you can be honest and use it, within a year, a 2:30 marathon should absolutely be do-able.
You're doing full body strength work already; that's anabolic. Running is catabolic. which isn't to say you can't get strength while running, but don't plan to bulk up, or make large gains. Also, if you're been a professional sitter, your hips and glutes are likely weak, and that often presents as lower leg pains in running. The old "Myrtle" routine is now the Strength and Mobility" routine.
posted by nobeagle at 6:29 AM on May 17, 2021 [5 favorites]
Do your strength training on the same days as any workouts in your plan.
You didn't say when in 2022, but I'll assume that you've got a year, as most races (in the northern hemisphere) are may-oct. I'd say don't worry about your half-marathon plan until the 3-4 months before your race. In the meantime:
1) start doing a long run once per week. There's many ways/goals for describing a long run, but start at about 1.5x your normal run.
2) safely get your volume up (by time, or distance). Despite 10%/week being the max volume increase, remember that doesn't mean "aim for 10% week over week every week." When you're as low as you currently are, going above 10% isn't that bad per week. But at the 40km-70km/week is the danger zone where people tend to injure themselves. As someone who was in the 40km-70km/week during his upper 30's and got injured a few times, I'd say aim for 5% improvement 2x per cycle, and do a cutback week (30-40% less volume) every 4 weeks, rather than 4-6 weeks. The week after your cutback week, you either aim to maintain the same mileage, or increase 5% from the week before the cutback. The cutback week defines the cycle where I advised at most 2 5% increases. 40-70km is the injury zone for runners.
The rule of thumb is 1-2 days for neuromuscular improvements, 3-5 weeks for cardio improvements, 4-6 weeks for skeletal muscular improvements and 3-6 months for bone/tendon improvements. It's that later part that's so important, and why many get injured trying to go to fast. Tendons/bones take a long time to remodel.
Remember, 40 is when you enter the "masters" category of running. You don't heal/recover as fast. After injuries/etc in the 38-39 range, moving from the 40-70km danger zone, I realized that I couldn't safely to 3+ quality workouts per week. So while I aim to run 6-7 days/week, but that's aerobic; only 1-2 times per week do I a workout with speed.
For a well-run half-marathon you probably want to be doing over 60km/week; this likely means over 5 hours per week, and running 5+ days per week. You won't (and shouldn't) be at that point tomorrow, but be prepared for time commitments if you want to hit this goal. Really, up until you're in the 80-100 miles/week, the first answer that you'll here if you ask "how can I get my race time faster" will be "more aerobic running." But remember to temper it with avoiding injury.
3) Lots of distance running (if your race is a mile or over, you're a distance runner) is stamina. You probably already have the speed to do a 2:30 half (can you run once around a 400m track in about 3m 4sec?). a 2:30 half is a bit over a 12 min/mile pace, so you *already* have the speed; congrats!
The way to increase your stamina is with "slow" aerobic running. If you're a 39 year old who's working on becoming athletic a simple rule of thumb is the MAF 180 method. You're getting back into training; you haven't been running 4+ times/week, so you have 180-39-5 - 136. So when you're running, aim for your HR to be in the 126-136 range.
Given your currently described capability this probably means that you might end up walking many (or all) hills, and maybe some flats. Your body/stamina really does get better with time, but most recreational runners will be doing short workouts (3 miles at an ~11 minute pace is 33 minutes) which put them in an anerobic state. You'll get some short term gains from that, but you won't help yourself in the long term, and risk burning out a bit. I bet if you record your HR and then just run and record your running as you normally do it without looking at your watch once, that your HR is hitting 150+ at some points.
You've started running at a golden time; optical heart rate are pretty good for consistent running, and bluetooth/ant+ chest straps (and watches with the feature to pair with them) are cheap if your skin doesn't work well with optical HR. If you can be honest and use it, within a year, a 2:30 marathon should absolutely be do-able.
You're doing full body strength work already; that's anabolic. Running is catabolic. which isn't to say you can't get strength while running, but don't plan to bulk up, or make large gains. Also, if you're been a professional sitter, your hips and glutes are likely weak, and that often presents as lower leg pains in running. The old "Myrtle" routine is now the Strength and Mobility" routine.
posted by nobeagle at 6:29 AM on May 17, 2021 [5 favorites]
Best answer: Hal Higdon's Novice 1 program has a note about strength training, specifically:
If you are an experienced lifter, continue, although you may want to cut back somewhat as the mileage builds near the end. Tuesdays and Thursdays after your run would be good days on which to lift.
From experience, if you are building mileage, then maintaining your current strength by training twice a week is reasonable. Building both strength and mileage at the same time is not a great idea.
You have a lot of time, so you can start by adding short runs on your strength training days. You might get some use of out reading Alex Hutchinson's "Which Comes First, Cardio Or Weights"?
posted by TORunner at 7:09 AM on May 17, 2021 [1 favorite]
If you are an experienced lifter, continue, although you may want to cut back somewhat as the mileage builds near the end. Tuesdays and Thursdays after your run would be good days on which to lift.
From experience, if you are building mileage, then maintaining your current strength by training twice a week is reasonable. Building both strength and mileage at the same time is not a great idea.
You have a lot of time, so you can start by adding short runs on your strength training days. You might get some use of out reading Alex Hutchinson's "Which Comes First, Cardio Or Weights"?
posted by TORunner at 7:09 AM on May 17, 2021 [1 favorite]
I just did most of Jeff Galloway’s half marathon training plan. Most because I wasn’t training for an actual race, I was just sort of doing the program to organize my running, and for something to be obsessing over during the pandemic. I got derailed in the last couple of weeks because it was February and everywhere I run was covered in ice.
His thing is running with short walk breaks — on the long runs I was doing four minutes of running, thirty seconds walking, and it made it surprisingly possible to keep going forever, not actually slower on average than running at an endurance pace. Even training for a half, the longest runs in the plan got up to twenty miles, and by the time I got to that point in the plan it wasn’t crazy difficult feeling.
posted by LizardBreath at 7:46 AM on May 17, 2021
His thing is running with short walk breaks — on the long runs I was doing four minutes of running, thirty seconds walking, and it made it surprisingly possible to keep going forever, not actually slower on average than running at an endurance pace. Even training for a half, the longest runs in the plan got up to twenty miles, and by the time I got to that point in the plan it wasn’t crazy difficult feeling.
posted by LizardBreath at 7:46 AM on May 17, 2021
I used Hal Higdon's plan that TORunner mentioned a few years ago that took me from being able to run 3 miles in the spring to completing a half in the fall. But, I didn't do any weight training.
posted by synecdoche at 8:28 AM on May 17, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by synecdoche at 8:28 AM on May 17, 2021 [1 favorite]
I would look at hiring a coach or a virtual coach and one who incorporates strength training into a plan. I follow this coach on social media, though I can't vouch for his plans.
posted by mcgsa at 9:57 AM on May 17, 2021
posted by mcgsa at 9:57 AM on May 17, 2021
Best answer: If (pre-pandemic) you could run 5ks at around 30 minutes (9:40ish pace?) but your HM time was around 2:30 (11:18ish pace) it indicates a lack of an aerobic base. The best thing you could do with your year (up until about 18 weeks before the HM) would be to spend as much time as possible running aerobically. This should be a very slow and comfortable pace - you should be able to have a conversation with a friend (not just short bursts, but tell a whole story without sounding like you're out of breath)
Once you have built a strong aerobic base I would start incorporating an interval session once a week (400m or 800 repeats for speed and for fun) and maybe either a tempo run or a fast-finish long run (not all your long runs should be fast-finish long runs - but I like to alternate between long, slow distance long runs and ones that end with an increasing amount at my half marathon pace - first 10 minutes, then 20 minutes, build from there).
I'm not a huge fan of Hal Higdon because his plans are _so_ focused on the long run - his plans mainly have 2-3 short runs a week and then a long run on the weekends. I think it's better (time permitting) to have your midweek runs be in the 4-9 mile range so you're not so dependent on a weekly long run. Matt Fitzgerald and Brad Hudson are my favorites these days, between them I got my HM time from about 2:20 to around 1:50ish. Look into "Run Faster: From the 5K to the Marathon: How to be your own best coach" by Hudson and Fitzgerald, 80/20 Running by Matt Fitzgerald and/or Brain Training For Runners by Matt Fitzgerald
Most training plans aren't going to have any strength training built in so I would just look elsewhere for that - just make sure you aren't doing a leg day either the day before or 2 days before a tough running workout and you should be OK. The books I mentioned have a little bit of strength built in but not very much if you're used to doing real strength workouts. There are a couple books out there that focus on strength work for runners - "Running Rewired" is a good one if you sit most of the day (big focus on stretches/strength work to counteract the typical weak glutes/tight hamstring combo that tends to come with that) but figuring out the scheduling if you aren't a pro athlete and don't have all the time in the world has always been the sticking point for me.
Good luck and I hope you have a great training cycle and great race!
posted by matcha action at 11:35 AM on May 17, 2021 [3 favorites]
Once you have built a strong aerobic base I would start incorporating an interval session once a week (400m or 800 repeats for speed and for fun) and maybe either a tempo run or a fast-finish long run (not all your long runs should be fast-finish long runs - but I like to alternate between long, slow distance long runs and ones that end with an increasing amount at my half marathon pace - first 10 minutes, then 20 minutes, build from there).
I'm not a huge fan of Hal Higdon because his plans are _so_ focused on the long run - his plans mainly have 2-3 short runs a week and then a long run on the weekends. I think it's better (time permitting) to have your midweek runs be in the 4-9 mile range so you're not so dependent on a weekly long run. Matt Fitzgerald and Brad Hudson are my favorites these days, between them I got my HM time from about 2:20 to around 1:50ish. Look into "Run Faster: From the 5K to the Marathon: How to be your own best coach" by Hudson and Fitzgerald, 80/20 Running by Matt Fitzgerald and/or Brain Training For Runners by Matt Fitzgerald
Most training plans aren't going to have any strength training built in so I would just look elsewhere for that - just make sure you aren't doing a leg day either the day before or 2 days before a tough running workout and you should be OK. The books I mentioned have a little bit of strength built in but not very much if you're used to doing real strength workouts. There are a couple books out there that focus on strength work for runners - "Running Rewired" is a good one if you sit most of the day (big focus on stretches/strength work to counteract the typical weak glutes/tight hamstring combo that tends to come with that) but figuring out the scheduling if you aren't a pro athlete and don't have all the time in the world has always been the sticking point for me.
Good luck and I hope you have a great training cycle and great race!
posted by matcha action at 11:35 AM on May 17, 2021 [3 favorites]
Three things:
* time on your feet -- getting used to "just keep going" for 4h30m, plus building some high-intensity work to rebuild your cardiovascular strength
* core strength for good running posture -- use some of your time training to gain functional strength and flexibility so your recovery is easier
* fuelling and hydration -- find your way to feed and drink your way through "just keep going" and to recover through the week of your training
See how you feel about running into the wall in the Autumn, too, with a long long long run and a week of lighter training as you recover.
Best of luck ... and "just keep going."
posted by k3ninho at 11:36 AM on May 17, 2021
* time on your feet -- getting used to "just keep going" for 4h30m, plus building some high-intensity work to rebuild your cardiovascular strength
* core strength for good running posture -- use some of your time training to gain functional strength and flexibility so your recovery is easier
* fuelling and hydration -- find your way to feed and drink your way through "just keep going" and to recover through the week of your training
See how you feel about running into the wall in the Autumn, too, with a long long long run and a week of lighter training as you recover.
Best of luck ... and "just keep going."
posted by k3ninho at 11:36 AM on May 17, 2021
I've done the Furman (aka F.I.R.S.T.) program for a full marathon and it worked for me. It's one of the few programs that integrates non-running activities (sorta). The half marathon program is here.
I like how it explicitly lists out the paces you need to run at, instead of using qualitative estimates like "Perceived Exertion" or "comfortably easy/hard" as it's harder to fool yourself about your own progress. However, it's not for the less motivated. It does not specify easy runs in this program; the three required runs are all speedwork, tempo, or long. What you do in between is up to you, they can be easy runs or they can be cross training. But you have to do _something_.
A year is a long time. You could do the entire program I listed twice (first with a slower target time), and then again for your target run date, or just for the second half.
--
I've also tried the run/walk/run method and it is bizarrely effective. It also allows you to be less dependent on your pacing/GPS watch, and it makes boring long runs into short approachable segments. Running at your own pace feels a lot more natural, and when you feel fitter you can tweak the length of the run or walk segments shorter or longer. However, it doesn't play well in cities or anywhere there are stop signs and traffic lights, since those unplanned stops mesh poorly with your planned walk/run segments.
You also feel a bit daft only running in single-digit minute segments at a time, but you can measure the results and decide for yourself.
posted by meowzilla at 1:26 PM on May 17, 2021 [1 favorite]
I like how it explicitly lists out the paces you need to run at, instead of using qualitative estimates like "Perceived Exertion" or "comfortably easy/hard" as it's harder to fool yourself about your own progress. However, it's not for the less motivated. It does not specify easy runs in this program; the three required runs are all speedwork, tempo, or long. What you do in between is up to you, they can be easy runs or they can be cross training. But you have to do _something_.
A year is a long time. You could do the entire program I listed twice (first with a slower target time), and then again for your target run date, or just for the second half.
--
I've also tried the run/walk/run method and it is bizarrely effective. It also allows you to be less dependent on your pacing/GPS watch, and it makes boring long runs into short approachable segments. Running at your own pace feels a lot more natural, and when you feel fitter you can tweak the length of the run or walk segments shorter or longer. However, it doesn't play well in cities or anywhere there are stop signs and traffic lights, since those unplanned stops mesh poorly with your planned walk/run segments.
You also feel a bit daft only running in single-digit minute segments at a time, but you can measure the results and decide for yourself.
posted by meowzilla at 1:26 PM on May 17, 2021 [1 favorite]
This thread is closed to new comments.
This may start to show up some tightness/weakness in your muscles, but you have plenty of time to find exercises and stretches to fix that.
Second thing is to make one of your short runs more focused on building up some speed - intervals, fartleks, whatever you find works for you. I would probably wait until you're comfortable running say 5 or 6 miles before you do that.
After that, I think it's going to depend how well the training goes and how much you want to stretch the goal you set yourself.
posted by crocomancer at 6:09 AM on May 17, 2021