Run Durability & a Half Marathon
I have been on the Run Durability program # 1 for two weeks. My wife would like to run the Empire State half marathon on October 19. I am going to run that with her but at my pace. My goal is to push to a PR for the distance. Although I am only doing the one speed work (2 X 1 mile intervals) I feel fast. Holding my pace down on the 30' & 70' GRP runs has been tough. How can I tweak my current program to keep building the run durability but still be fast at the race? My SRM has me starting the advanced run focus plan this week and the NOS on 11/02. Thanks
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@Edwin Croucher I realize this was years ago - but I am currently training for a 10 mile and trying to crush my husband's record (When he was 15 years younger:) ). My mind has been blown by Coach Patrick's new found knowledge that you don't need to train fast to race fast. I would like to start a run durability flavor of training, but recently have been doing my race pace, and faster, sets with confidence. Thoughts on how you used run durability to train for the 13.1?
@Leslie Sedlak When is your race? I am a strong believer in the RDP. However, I have not run a stand alone distance race since that 1/2 Mary in 2014. Endurance wise, I had plenty in the bank. However, I wanted to race. So, I changed my program a little. I ran the majority of my training runs at 25 - 30 slower than my goal race pace. I stilled did mile intervals which were great for speed. The large majority of my runs were under 6 miles and my long run was 10. I only ran 5 days each week. In the end, I had a great race with a PR. I had not raced run only events very often. My lack of race experience made me too cautious. After the race, I had too much left over and could have run faster throughout. If I were going to train for a 1/2 Mary today, I would train a little different still. I would run 6 to 7 times a week. I would run most at TRP or slower. I would add in the intervals mid week with that day looking like 1 mile easy jog to warm-up, then 4 X 1 mile (RI 1/8 walk, 1/8 super easy jog) and finish with an easy jog up to a mile. this will bring that workout to nearly 8 miles. At the end of your week I would do a long run no more than 8 miles. This of course is just my opinion.
@Edwin Croucher race is 7 Oct. Your advice looks to be very close to what I'm already doing - minus the 6-7 days a week part - but that changes today. Today is Day 1 of my RDP running streak - so hopefully I can PR. I hear you on the cautious part - run races are hard for me to gauge, and I find myself trying to play catch up on the last few miles, realizing how much I have left in the tank. Here's planning to execute better this go round. Thanks!