1st Half Marathon in Five Weeks (Training Q's)

Hi all, I'm a 31 year-old male who has been running for 2 years or so, mainly just 5/10k's. I'm planning to run a half-marathon in 5 weeks but have suffered shin injuries for the last 2 months and only now feel ready to go again. I completed a 5k and a 6.5k last week to see if my shin can hold up to it and it seems okay, now the training plan as there is only five full weeks left. Any recommendations? I was thinking of this. All taking place on a Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday

WEEK 1: 5.6m/4.34m/8m

WEEK 2: 5m/6.2m/8m

WEEK 3: 6m/10m/7.5m

WEEK 4: 6.2m/11m/7.5m

WEEK 5: 5m on Tuesday, 3m on Thursday, Raceday on Sunday

Is that workable or am I mad? I was aiming for 1.45 initially, now I'll just be happy to finish under 2 hours given where I am now.

Thanks for your help.

Personally i'd think about doing more 8 / 9 .5/ 11 / 7  or so on the last Sat.  Building up and then having a bit of a pause on the last week unless thursdays are easier for you then saturdays for your long run.  I'd not do you longest run a week or so before i'd get it out of the way earlier and then take it back down a bit so you are fresh for the half.

I know you are worried about undertraining but there seem to be more issues with overtraining then undertraiing and frankly you've been running for 2 years or so and have a decent pace so you know what your doing.  It's just being confident, and you konw the crowd and other runners will help on the day.

I'm in no way or form an expert I've been running less than half the time you have, that's just my opinion.

Looks good to me Seedy ......... go get em tiger!

I wouldn't do the long run in week 4.  It takes two weeks for your body to feel the benefit of the training effect. so that long run won't benefit your race-day performance and also carries the potential to negatively affect your race (increased risk of injury plus fatigue).

Otherwise your plan is about as sensible as it can be trying to achieve the doubling of distance in too short a time period.  Make sure your long runs are run at a slow pace, but it may be worth running a couple of miles in one of the other weekly runs at your target HM pace (i.e. around 9 min.mile for a two hour HM).  You can then decide whether you are want to maintain that for 13 miles, or whether you'd be better using a run/walk approach (and therefore having to run a bit faster to compensate for the walking intervals).

It would be more sensible to cancel this HM and run a different one in a few months time, where you can have a decent crack at it.  

Thanks guys, I can do 5k in 25mins, 10k in 50mins by myself and usually shave that down to around 22 minutes and 45 minutes when racing.

WRT days of running, I can easily do Tuesdays as my longest run so could taper off a bit earlier, I see what you are saying there, it makes sense. This week is slightly different though as I'm running with my mate on Saturday who is also doing the half-marathon but he's aiming for a pace of around 9mins per mile which is slower than what I'd normally run, so whilst it's a bigger distance it'll be a gentler run for me in terms of pace.

I could....could, stick to week 1 as it is and then flip it around from week 2 onwards with my longest/strongest run then being the first of the week? This would mean by  Week 4, my longest run is on the Tuesday and that then gives me around 12 days to taper off and go into shorter, easier runs?

Does that make sense?

Stutyr - I agree, it isn't ideal preparation. It's just that there are four of us entered for it and I've wanted to enter a HM for a long-time and without this injury, things would be easier and therefore, it's an ambition to take the start-line with my friends. As I say, my aim now is really just to complete it and finish it. The aim of running it as quickly as possible is on the backburner until the next one. I just want to complete it safely but do a respectable job.

Also tonight is the tonight in my new running shoes, brooks pureflows, an added bit of excitement for tonight 

Had gait analysis done at the weekend and binned my old shoes as whilst they seemed okay, the brooks will apparently help more.