Am I Ready for Bristol Half??

Hi everybody. This year I started running to lose a bit of weight and improve fitness. At the beginning of the year I could only run about 3k but soon built up to 10k runs.

I decided it would be a good idea to enter the Bristol Half Marathon which is now a month away. I have ran 10 miles before on the road and have done 13 miles on a treadmill (albeit a slow 2 hrs 19 mins).

I have had a bad month due to other commitments and was looking for some advice on what sort of length runs I should do in the next four weeks building up to the event.

Should I attempt a 13 mile run outside? Or do lots of shorter runs? Any advice appreciated. Cheers

Someone more knowledgeable than me will come along shortly, but my initial reaction would be not to do the full distance before race day

Maybe you could google some training plans and see if you could modify the last three/four weeks to suit?

J1M has it spot on. DO NOT try to do too much now. A final long run of around 9-10 miles, two weeks before race day, with another of similar, maybe slightly shorter distance before that (either this Sunday or next) with some shorter slightly quicker stuff thrown in during the week should be fine.

I've done three half marathons (all Bristol actually) and have never gone more than ten miles in training for any of them, because each one was after a break from running, so effectively I was starting again. My next one will be slightly different in that I have been training and getting a good base for much longer, so I should be able to get some higher mileage runs in before the race. I know I can do this because I'm three months out and have already done some long runs of similar distance to the longest runs I did for the last three.

Good luck and enjoy it. You get good support at the Bristol Half. I'll definitely be back there at some point in the future to try and smash my (slow) PB.

As the others have said, just get some long runs in once a week now, and then remember to taper for the week before the event (i.e reduce the mileage in the last week).  If you haven't been doing high mileage, you won't need a two week taper.

Instead of worrying about distance, you may prefer to go out for a 2 hour run at an easy pace.  This means you will simulate the time on your feet associated with the event without the additional stress of trying to maintain a set pace. With only a month to go you can't make any dramatic changes to your fitness & endurance levels, so try and relax and remember how much you've achieved this year so far (3k to 13 miles!) 

You'll be fine, couple more longish runs (plus your other runs), then cut back. Do all the rest of your runs outside.

As a rule I'd say if you want to get round comfortably there's no need to run the full race distance. However if in future you really want to race the full distance, then for anything up to and including a half I'd say you have to run over distance in training in order to be able to keep pushing really hard all the way to the end.

I'd go with aiming for a couple of long runs outdoors but more time based than distance. You've done over 2 hours on the treadmill so aim to build to a 90 min to 2 hour run over the next couple of weeks then taper for the last week. Get a couple of shorter runs in during the week as well if you can.

If you'd developed a good fitness base up to the point your other committments got in the way of your training then you should still have a good level of fitness which will get you round, its just a case of maintaining the level you have over the next month.

Good luck on the day. I'm racing too, should be fun.

Hi everybody. Firstly thank you all for your replies. I took all the information you gave me onboard and it was very helpful. I am pleased to say that I completed the half in 2 hrs 5 mins which i was very happy with. i have booked a full marathon in manchester for april 2012. so i may be asking for more advice in march next year. lol. thanks again. regards james

Well done James!

You might be a bit late for Manchester 2012 

Well done James.