Chippin' away

Been chippin away at my half marathon PB this year and have taken 5 minutes off since last year. Currently now 1:33.46 and would like to get under the magic 1 hour 30. Last one a couple of weeks ago I was just under 49mins for 7 miles, but then minute miles started slipping.

I currently run 4 times a week. Club Tuesday, tempo Thurs, 5 mile quick Friday & long run Sunday. Didn't know if I needed to do more tempo runs or more milage?

Have entered the Bedford half in December and hoping to have another bash at PB before the end of the year.

Any ideas appreciated

Cheers

Colin,

From what you're doing at the moment I'd certainly suggest more mileage rather than more speedwork. Assuming club means speed intervals, 3 out of 4 sessions are speedy - even if you carry on with just 4 sessions I'd make one of them easy pace and longer mileage. A mid week 'semi-long' run would give an extra boost to endurance, plus your speed sessions will probably be more effective. Maybe make Thursday's run an easy pace run, building up to about 10-12 miles/90 mins, and Friday could be a tempo run. Even better still if you could start to incorporate an extra session per week to get the mileage up. Even drop one of the speed sessions as you get used to increasing training volume.

Also how long are your long runs? Worth going over distance if you're not already, say up to 15 miles or two hours of easy running.

May be a bit late for incorporating major changes for the Bedford Half, although you've still got a few weeks to get in some extra mileage before tapering again.

Cheers for the advice. I think you could be right about the mid-week semi long run. Hadn't really realised that I was doing as much “speed“ sessions. Maybe cranking up the milage and throwing in a weekly quality speed session is probably the best short term solution.

Well how about that - 18 months after this thread I've now got my PB down to 1.25.26.
Doing more long runs (usually 10 -12 miles even going up to 15) in training has helped mixed in with 5 x 2k reps.

I think once you have got up to a certain speed level you just need to crank up the milage.
10k PB time in a good indicator to half marathon minute mile pace.

Out of interest what is your 10k pb - both back in 2007 and now.

We sound like pretty similar runners in terms of training (your original), so just curious really...

Stuart

PB back in 2007 was about 42.34
PB now for 10k is 39.32 (although I'm hoping to beat that later this summer)

The key session I found really & truely works is the 5x 2k reps session.
These are all done below 8 minutes per rep pace.
I started off this session doing them in 8 - 8.10 & now I'm down to 7.20 - 7.30ish.
All with about 4 - 6 miuntes recovery.
It's more important to build it up and complete all 5 reps as it took a few doing this for the times to start coming down.

The beauty of this workout is it teaches your body to run at a consistant economical pace.
It also a good idea to try and get at least one long 10 + mile run each week to keep the staminer levels up.

What are yor goals this year?

KR,

Have been back running since Jan of this year after exactly a 2 year layoff with injury (Plantar Facilitis) which has now completely gone.  have built the distance/time on feet up since then and out 3/4 times a week for an hour to 1.5 at mo.  Haven't done any speedwork as yet.

Prior to injury my 10k PB was 40:38 but usually times were between 42 and 44 mins with similar training to yourself at that time but I didn't do the long run.  My 'Long run' only was about 5 miles - which is probably why I died a lot in 10k races!!

Since Jan have done a 5k race in 22:01 (PB previously was 19:40) which I am happy with as was a very hilly course.

I am training for a half in June and looking at the sub 90. As mentioned above I am building the longer run up and I would say that in the next week or so going to be up around the 12 mile mark.

I think that I am going to ignore speed/tempo training at the mo and concentrate on upping the mileage/long run/time on feet. and throw in a couple of 5k & 10k races for 2 reasons - one to get back into a 'race' feel and the other for the speedwork element.

I beleive by training for the half that later in the year the 10k and 5k PBs should naturally drop - hopefully the elusive 40 min barrier!!

Hi Stuart

Sounds like you are certainly on the way back to fitness
These weblinks (below) might help your training or even give you some ideas to incorporate?
I personally think you can't overlook the interval training as that is a key session for both half marathons & 10k's, but at the end of the day you have to do what you feel it right for yourself.
Good luck!

http://www.pponline.co.uk/encyc/0092.htm

http://www.pponline.co.uk/encyc/0004.htm

http://www.multisports.com/archives/40_min_10k.shtml